Secrets and Suspicious Minds
by Jedwar
Summary: This is a crossover with Smallville characters set in an AU version of the DC Universe Earth-2 reality of golden age heroes and groups.
1. Secrets and Suspicious Minds Chapter 1

**Secrets and Suspicious Minds**

by

_Inspired by Suspicious Minds and Secrets by _Clark Luthor 322_ who has graciously given me permission to use the idea of their story as the basis of this one._

_This is a crossover between Smallville and DC Elseworlds, specifically its certain Smallville characters set in an AU version of the DC Universe Earth-2 reality of golden age heroes and groups. I do not own any of the characters, nor anything connected to Smallville or the DC Universe._

**Chapter 1 - Prologue**

In the endless reaches of the universe there once existed a planet known as Krypton, a planet that burned like a green star in the distant heavens. A world with a much harsher environment than our own with a gravitational force many times that of Earth. Kryptonian civilization flourished for nearly a half million years when it entered its final golden age with the discovery of the means to cross the vastness of the heavens in the blink of an eye. For more than 100,000 years their civilization prospered as their race spread throughout the known 28 galaxies seeking new worlds to settle upon. They built outposts and colonies on other planets using great machines to reshape whole planetary environments to suit their needs. It was during this period that their civilization reached its zenith and the Kryptonians evolved into a race of supermen whose mental and physical powers were developed to the absolute peak of perfection allowing them to accomplish wonders.

It was at this pinnacle of their evolution that the Kryptonians developed the one thing that would be the subtle and sublime cause of their eventual destruction, the Genesis Chamber. With the Genesis Chamber the Kryptonians had discovered the means to insure what they saw as the genetic purity and perfection of their race. From that time on all Kryptonians were conceived in such chambers. Every child was designed to be perfect and perform a predetermined function within their society as a worker, a warrior, a leader, and so on. Through the final perfection of their race the Kryptonians extended their lifespans, eliminated virtually all diseases, and were able to maintain their population at set level. Due to being able to artificially control their population, Kryptonians no longer saw the need to expand into space to relieve their population problems.

With the pressure of population under their control, Krypton abandoned its space exploration leaving its outpost and colonies on their own. The focus of the civilization now turned inward and slowly withdrew in on itself over the ensuing centuries. Science and technology still advanced, but at far slower, almost glacial, pace. The abandonment of their colonies also meant that Krypton was now completely dependent but only the resources of their native star system to provide for all of their needs. Eventually this led to Krypton's leaders having to resort to harvesting the planet's core when all of their other energy resources became exhausted.

Only one lone voice spoke against this course of action, and that voice was Var-L, the head of Krypton's oldest and most revered houses. It was the House of L that had been responsible for many of Krypton's greatest scientific achievements including the the discovery of the Phantom drives that came to power all of their interstellar ships and the creation of the Phantom Zone to house all of Krypton's criminals. Var-L's research showed him that harvesting the core would be at best a temporary fix, and if it continued for a prolonged period of time it would mean that the planet would in time tear itself apart by implosion.

When his dire warnings didn't come to pass within twenty years, Var-L's concerns were discounted and dismissed. Not long after that Var-L disappeared on one of his research expeditions into Krypton's hinterlands. Some say that he had been silenced by Krypton's Supreme Council, but no one could prove anything and in time people forgot anything about it.

For nearly eighty years a precarious balance was maintained as the leaders of the planet continued to harvest more and more of the core. There is no telling how long this balance could have been maintained, but it became matter of speculative conjecture when a huge spacecraft appeared in Krypton's sky piloted by an entity calling itself Brainiac. Brainiac claimed that he was there to insure that a piece of Krypton would be preserved forever and that the planet's leaders should choose which city they would surrender to him. When they didn't make a choice within the allotted time, Brainiac did it for them by selecting the city of Kandor and shrinking it down to a size to fit within a large clear bottle. The disappearance of Kandor from the planet's surface caused Krypton's core to become even more unbalanced and sped up the rate of its demise. Over the next ten years things seemed to calm down and return to the way things had been, but each passing day actually only increased the speed at which Krypton hurled towards its own destruction.

Again, it was the House of L that saw the planet's swiftly approaching end and attempted to raise the alarm; yet again no one would listen. This time it was Jor-L, Var-L's grandson and Krypton's greatest scientist that tried to warn everyone of the coming calamity. Jor-L and his wife Lara had long seen the erosion of Krypton's civilization for what it truly was and what its cause had been. It was for this reason that they decided to give birth to their child in a natural way, freeing it from any predetermined destiny of fitting a specific place in society with no say in the choice. Lara gave birth to the first natural born child on Krypton in more than several millennia, a son that they named Kal.

Just days later, General Dru-Zod, Krypton's supreme military commander, attempted a coup by against the leadership of the Council. The coup was put down with Jor-L's help, but during it Jor-L and Lara had launched Kal into the stars on the chance that they might never be able to if Zod's revolt did succeed. General Zod was killed by Jor-L during the fighting as he attempted to shoot down the vessel carrying Kal-L, and Zod's followers were condemned to the Phantom Zone. Barely a month later Krypton tore itself apart in a cataclysmic explosion. As it did, one other ship slipped into space following where the other had already gone.

By then Kal-L's ship had completed its journey through star-studded space, landing safely on Earth with its precious burden in a field belonging to Jonathan and Martha Kent of Smallville, Kansas. In early 1916, the childless Kents adopted the infant they had found and as the years went by and the child grew to maturity, he found himself possessed of amazing physical and mental powers far beyond any normal human. Faster than a speeding bullet... more powerful than a locomotive... able to leap tall buildings in a single bound... the infant of Krypton became the Man of Steel, Superman.

As Superman and Clark Kent, the Last Son of Krypton did his part during the Second World War as both a superhero and a fighting man. With the end of the war, there were forces within the government at home that now looked for a new 'enemy' and they set their sights on the very heroes that had helped secure victory. The Heroes Registration Act was supposedly meant to have those who had fought to protect to America to reveal their true identities so the public could show its appreciation.

Many of the heroes questioned the true intent of the law and refused to comply. That meant the disbanding of the Justice Society of America and the All-Star Squadron. Superman, like many of his fellow heroes, has assumed a civilian disguise. Superman still appears when he is truly needed, but he does so as do all the heroes that have chosen to remain in America, as a person sought by the government that had once so proudly served. Now he spends most of his time as Clark Kent, Private Detective, to be in a position within the great city of Metropolis to use his amazing powers in his never ending battle for truth, justice, and protecting the innocent.


	2. Secrets and Suspicious Minds Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

**November 17, 1947**

**Metropolis, DE**

The light/dark blue, two-toned 1947 Talbot-Lago T26 Cabriolet, that had its top down, pulled gracefully into the first open parking spaces along the 400 block of Clinton Street. The driver's right side door opened and a pair of well-proportioned feet in black patent leather high-heeled pumps emerged as the vehicle's occupant stepped out onto the sidewalk. When the car door swung shut it revealed a pair of gorgeous legs encased in black silk stockings. The stockings disappeared under a tight, black wool skirt that belonged to a skirt/suit ensemble that was itself hidden under the silver fox fur jacket its owner was wearing against the brisk autumn air. A pair of dark sunglasses covered her eyes against the bright late morning sun; a condition that wasn't going to last with an early winter storm that was due to blow late that evening. It was easy to discern the color of the woman's rich auburn-colored hair since she had quickly run a hair brush through it a couple of times before she had exited the car to repair some of the wind damage that had been done from her drive into town. Allowing her hair to blow in the wind was the way she liked it. Oh, she could dress and make herself up along with the best of them when she had to, but she really preferred doing things a bit more naturally and simpler.

Turning from the car, the woman placed her free hand into the protective warmth of the pockets of her jacket as the young woman began striding purposefully towards the entrance of the Savoy Court Apartment building at 400 Clinton Street where it intersects with McFadden Avenue. After passing the entrance the private underground parking for the building's tenants, came the entrance of a convenience shop selling the usual wares including the Daily Planet whose banner headline was part of the reason she was here. The woman paid only passing interest to the facade of the building that was literally encrusted with terracotta ornaments of flowers, urns, salamanders breathing fire and much more done in the style of François I and was one the reasons her uncle had bought the building more than fifteen years ago. Just past the shop was an awning covering the distance from the entrance to the building out to the curb. On reaching the awning the woman turned to the right and had the door of the apartment building quickly opened for her by the doorman stationed just outside of it. After going up three steps the woman entered the lobby of the building.

As she entered lobby the woman removed her sunglasses and slipped them into one of the pockets of her jacket as she surveyed her surroundings through her blue-green eyes. Directly in front of her was the large open courtyard than ran all the way up through the center of the building and was covered at the top by a steel and glass roof that allowed sunlight to illuminate the interior of the building. To her left she could see the lobby entrance into the rear of the Savoy Grill which was one of the better eating establishments in Metropolis and had been located in this building ever since it had opened in 1909. The main entrance of the restaurant was at the corner of the building that sat at the intersection of Clinton St. and McFadden Ave. The Savoy Grill served some of the best steaks and seafood in town and was currently closed while they prepared for the usual lunch crowd. Across the courtyard and down a short hallway the woman could just the lobby entrance to the bar that was next to and attached to the Savoy Grill; the name "Ace of Clubs" was painted on the door. To the woman's right over in one corner was the building's stairwell and its elevators that serviced the apartments on the upper floors of the building. Near the elevators was desk manned by young woman with brown hair and brown eyes dressed in nice dress and wearing a name tag that announced to the public that her name was "Bianka" who was talking on the phone and quickly writing something down.

The woman approached the desk and waited patiently until the girl was done with the call. The girl looked up at her and politely asked in a rather cultured voice that had the barest hint of an Hungarian accent, "How can I help you, madam?"

"I'm looking for Clark Kent Investigations," the woman replied.

"Yes, madam, that would be the door right over there" the girl said as she pointed at rather nondescript over in far corner the woman's right.

After thanking the girl, the woman began to walk towards it. As she did she pondered its location and decided that it must backed up against and parallel the shop front she past coming into the building. On reaching the door the woman saw that only identifier it had on was the #102. From the other side of the door came the rapid pounding of a typewriter being used by a skilled practitioner, which only became louder as the woman turned the door knob and stepped into the office beyond.

The outer office was lined with dark oak paneling and tastefully decorated with a leather sofa that sat just to the right of the doorway that sat of the edge of an expensive Persian carpet the woman realized. A variety of very good quality original paintings hung on the wall that included a variety of different landscapes from around the world. It was apparent that of them had been done by the same artist since each of them was signed simply with the initials "M.K." In fact there was something familiar about the style of painting the woman had quickly taken in; somewhere she had seen it before. File cabinets lined the right-hand wall of the outer office under three of the paintings the woman had been looking at. Along the left hand wall that the door opened up against were three sets of stackable lawyer bookcases with five units each that were filled with a truly eclectic variety of books; one of which she easily recognized since she was the one who had written it.

Sitting behind a mahogany desk was a young blonde woman, wearing a light blue dress of obvious quality, who was in her early to mid-twenties and could easily be described as attractive. On the front edge of the desk sat a nameplate announcing the young woman behind the desk was "Alicia Baker". Alicia's fingers were flashing with unerring accuracy across the keys of the newest model of electric typewriter offered by International Machine Products (IMP) as she listened to the Dictaphone that sat next to her desk and was transcribing whatever it was that was on the recording. After a moment or so, Alicia having come to a stopping point, reached over and switched off the Dictaphone before turning towards the woman with a bright smile that lit up her brown eyes and said, "Good morning, how can I help you?"

"I was hoping to speak with Mr. Kent on a rather urgent matter," the woman replied as she suddenly realized that she was hearing the sound of more typing coming from the inner office, which if anything by the she sound the other typist was progressing at an even greater rate than what the proficient Miss Baker had already demonstrated.

"He's just finishing up some details of his latest case and doesn't have any other appointments for today. So I don't think that will be a problem," Alicia said as moved to press the send button on her intercom. "Who should I say is here to see him?"

"Lutessa Mercier," the woman stated.

With some difficulty Alicia was able to keep her surprise from showing on her face. Lex Luthor's cousin was here to see Clark. She wondered if it had to do with the case that her boss had just finished for Lex a few days ago, or was it possible it had something to do with Lex's untimely death in a plane crash yesterday afternoon in Starling City that was splashed all over the front page of every newspaper in the city, especially the Daily Planet.

As Alicia pushed the button and released it, the sound of typing from the inner office ceased and rich, vibrant voice asked over the intercom, "Yes Alicia, what is it?"

"Miss Lutessa Mercier is here to see you," Alicia answered.

"Please show Miss Mercier in, Alicia," Clark said with a reflective tone as he leaned back in his chair as he quickly recalled the first time he had ever met Lutessa Mercier. It was a day nearly nineteen years ago that had a major impact on his life and those of his friends.

_**Flashback...**_

**December 27, 1928**

**Elbow River near Smallville, Kansas**

Clark Kent quickly came to a sliding stop on his homemade snowmobile near the Loeb Street Bridge as Pete Ross and Chloe Sullivan were waiting for him with huge grins on their faces. They were grinning at the fact that they had so easily beaten their friend in their five mile race over the iced-over river. Clark couldn't figure that out since he and Pete had built their three machines in the same way from the same type of parts they had scrounged from wrecked motorcycles at the Ross Salvage Yard. The only thought that came to him was the fact that he was not a normal thirteen year old somehow made him heavier which would account for the reduced amount of speed he was getting from his machine.

Clark had found the plans for the converting a motorcycle into a machine the author of the article called a "snowmobile" in an old magazine that he had found lying about the hangers that housed the Kent family's crop dusting business earlier in the fall. With Pete's help they had gathered together the parts his family's salvage yard and had built the first one in the following four weeks. When it was ready they were happy and surprised that it worked the first time they tried it out in the field behind the Kent family barn. Once they knew it worked, Pete and Clark got to work on one for Pete, which took them only three weeks to put together this and that was only because it took them a bit longer to find the necessary parts. Needless to say, since Chloe was their friend they had one put together for her in time for their school's holiday break. That was the reason they were racing up and down the iced-over Elbow River two days after Christmas.

"What's the matter, Clark," Chloe teased with her infectious smile, "can't get anymore speed out of that heap your riding?"

"No," Clark playfully shot back, "I just didn't want to discourage you by beating you too easily."

"What!" Chloe cried in surprise. "Are you saying that you have been holding back for the last two hours and letting me and Pete win every race we have had?"

"Now," Clark replied in a voice thick with sarcasm so it wouldn't be lost on his two friends, "I never said that. You're trying to put words in my mouth again, Chloe."

"Well, at least you have someone who cares enough to give you words and coherent sentences to fill that vacuum between your ears," Chloe said with a smirk as she quickly fired back.

Pete didn't even try to keep the smile off his own face. Being treated to the verbal sparring between his two friends was some of the best entertainment he got, and he didn't even need to have a radio or to go to Talon movie theater to enjoy it. That was the reason that he couldn't help but chuckle at her reply.

Pete knew that Chloe had a major crush on Clark, and he was even aware that Clark also had some feelings for their female counterpart that were stronger than just friendship. He just wished one of them one do something about getting the whole situation out in the open.

Any further thoughts about his friends' feelings for each other were interrupted by a loud popping noise coming from the bridge above them. Instantly after the first sound, the screeching of tires and brakes preceded the cacophony of noise that came with a large black and blue limousine crashing through the railing of the Loeb Bridge. The three friends watched on in stunned silence as they saw the vehicle hit the river and easily punched through the ice before disappearing from sight.

For Chloe and Pete the whole scene before them had been played out in space of a couple of heartbeats. It was a different story for Clark. As he looked up after hearing the pop and saw the car come into sight, time seemed to slow down for him. In what might be described as horrid fascination, he watched as the vehicle careened off the bridge and slowly fell towards the river. Things were moving so slow that Clark actually had the time to see the occupants of the limousine, which included the driver, a man and a little girl with auburn hair and wide blue-green eyes that were looking at him with fear easily visible within them. He even recognized the vehicle as a 1928 Bugatti Type 41 Royale. There was only one person in Smallville that owned a car like that, and that was Henri Mercier, the owner and general manager of the local chemical/fertilizer plant where Chloe's father, Gabe, was assistant general manager and Mr. Mercier's right-hand man. That meant the little girl was Mr. Mercier's seven-year old daughter, Lutessa.

Clark's parents had drummed into him not to let anyone see him use his abilities, but innocent lives were in danger. So, with only a passing thought to fact that his friends were about to see him do something that normally would be impossible, Clark was already moving towards the hole in the ice that had swallowed the car barely a moment before it had disappeared from sight.

"Clark! Wait! That ice is going to be dangerous!" was all Chloe was able to yell out to her friend before he reached the hole and dove straight in without wasting a second.

"My God! He's insane," Chloe gasped.

"That's Clark," Pete responded sadly at the thought his friend had probably just killed himself while trying to help someone he didn't even know. "Always the hero."

In numb fascination, the two young people began to move slowly towards where they had seen their friend disappear beneath the ice. Upon reaching the point that both of them still felt safe to stand on they stared helplessly at the floating chunks of ice that marked the point where Clark and the car had entered the water.

Ten seconds past, then twenty. As it was approaching nearly thirty seconds since Clark had vanished into the water, Chloe and Pete suddenly heard the sound of breaking ice behind them and closer to the riverbank. Spinning about the two of them were startled to see first the nose of the limousine emerging from beneath the ice quickly followed by the rest of the vehicle being carried from the rear end by Clark as he shot out of the ice and water like a whale broaching the surface.

Chloe and Pete stood there in open-mouthed astonishment as they watched Clark continue to rise from the water as his trajectory took him towards the bank of the river. It was only after Clark had gently landed and carefully put the car down that they came out of their wonder induced stupor and began to run towards where their friend had landed and was already busy pulling the people from the vehicle. They had almost reached him when Clark, having removed its three occupants, suddenly picked up the limousine and effortlessly heaved it back out into the river to approximately the same spot it had originally entered the water.

"Why did you do that?" a dumbfounded Pete asked.

"Because silly," the usually quick witted Chloe explained as she was the first to recover from what she had just witnessed, "people will believe that he pulled these folks out the river, but not a whole car."

"She's right, Pete," Clark said confirming what Chloe had said. "Now, we need do what we can to revive them."

Pete immediately fell back on his Boy Scout training and began moving the arms of the first body he came to which was that of the chauffeur as he began chanting, "Out with the bad air, In with the good air".

Chloe simply shook her head at Pete's actions that she recognized as coming from his training as a boy scout. Seeing Chloe's reaction just he as was getting ready to follow Pete's example on Mr. Mercier, Clark asked, "Do you know a better way Chloe?"

"Yes, in a book a read about a year ago, I came across a method used by doctors and midwifes on babies who have stopped breathing," Chloe said as she bend over the little girl. First she wiped the mouth and then checked to see that there was nothing blocking her air passage. Chloe leaned the girl's head back to create an obstructed path to her lungs before pinching her nose close and breathing into her mouth. The boys watched as the girls lungs filled with air and her chest expanded. Within half a dozen breathes the girl began breathing on her own and spitting up the water in her system.

Convinced that Chloe's method worked, Pete and Clark turned to the two men and began following Chloe's example. In less than minute both men were breathing on their own and slowly beginning to recover. But Clark realized that if they didn't do something to get these three people help, as well as warmed up and dry soon, they would probably die from exposure to the cold air and being in wet clothes.

"Pete, you go for help," Clark ordered his friend. "The closest place with a phone would be the mill about a mile down the road. Call the sheriff and the hospital. Let them know what happened out here and that they need to get some people over here as soon as possible. Chloe you stay here and look after them while I go get some wood to start a fire."

So, as Pete hopped on his snowmobile and sped off to the mill, Clark began to gather wood for a fire moving at speeds no normal human could hope to obtain. Since the three victims had their backs to him they didn't see how Clark was able to so quickly gather more than enough wood, but Chloe did. That was just another question that the intrepid young reporter was going to have for her friend who was busy making a fire by using what appeared to be his boy scout training. Of course, Chloe knew that Clark had never been in the scouts and chalked the fact that he had a fire going in less than a minute to another ability that he had; one more than thing to add to her list of questions about her friend.

As Clark busied himself with building up his fire, Chloe decided to do what she could to keep everyone's attention off her friend by talking to Mr. Mercier and company.

"Are you alright, Mr. Mercier," Chloe asked.

"I'm fine, Chloe," Henri replied easily remembering the daughter of his assistant general manager, Gabriel Sullivan, before turning his attention to his daughter. "I'm just worried about Lutessa."

"She'll be fine since Clark is getting that fire really going," Chloe said as she began to take off her coat revealing the fact she had another one on underneath it and placing it over the slightly shivering form of Lutessa Mercier. "What happened to cause you to go off the bridge?"

"I'm not exactly sure. We were crossing the bridge on our way back home from the train station from having dropped off my brother-in-law and his son for their trip back to Metropolis when there was a loud pop that shook the car. After that the car went out of control, crashed through the guardrail on the bridge and into the river. If you want to know what caused the accident," Henri said as turned and looked at his chauffeur, "you would have to ask Jean-Pierre."

On hearing his name, Jean-Pierre stated in slightly with a French accent, "We hit something I didn't see on the bridge that punctured one of the front tires which caused me some difficulty in steering the car. Then all of a sudden the car began sliding and swerving in a manner I could not control, the next thing I knew we were crashing off the bridge and into the water. It must have been some ice on the bridge that caused me to lose control of the car. I am sorry, sir," Jean-Pierre said apologizing to his employer.

"You have nothing to apologize for, Jean-Pierre," Henri said gently. "It was simply an accident that no one could have anticipated. "What I don't understand is how we ended up being rescued at all, let alone so quickly?"

"My friends and I were just below the bridge when your car crashed through the guardrail. My friend Clark is the one that dove in after you and pulled you from the river," Chloe said being truthful, but not completely truthful. She saw no reason to go into details about something she didn't fully understand herself, at least for the moment.

"Clark?" Henri asked questioningly.

"Him, daddy," Lutessa said in a small voice as she pointed at their rescuer who was attending to the fire they had now gathered round. "I saw him running towards us as we went under. I even saw him swimming towards us under the water and that was the last thing I remember before waking up here."

"Clark, would you come here for a moment," Chloe called out feeling that it was a more than appropriate time for introductions.

Hearing Chloe call his name, Clark turned away from the fire that was large enough now that it was already beginning to dry out the clothes of Mr. Mercier, his daughter and the chauffeur. In fact, it was so warm that the rocks he had placed about the blaze seemed to almost be glowing and adding to the heat. As he stepped over to stand beside his friend, Chloe began, "Mr. Mercier, this is my friend Clark Kent. Clark, this is Henri Mercier, his daughter Lutessa and their chauffeur, Jean-Pierre. Clark's father was just re-elected as our mayor."

"It is a pleasure to meet you, sir," Clark said to the three figures gathered around the fire as he shook the hands that were extended towards him.

"It is most assuredly my pleasure as well, Mr. Kent," Henri replied as he firmly shook the boy's hand. "And I am eternally grateful for what you have done today. I've met your father on several occasions as well as your mother. They are both very good people. I think they represent every that is best about your country."

"I appreciate that, sir," Clark stated in a quiet voice a little embarrassed by the man's praise for himself, but not his parents. He believes like Mr. Mercier that his parents, as well as the whole Kent clan, are the best people on this planet. "But I didn't do anything anyone else wouldn't have done under the same circumstances. Besides, it was Chloe who knew how to revive you. She is the one you should really be thanking."

"_Thanks a lot, Clark,"_ Chloe grumbled in her thoughts. A reporter was supposed to report the story, not be part of the story.

"What is he talking about, Miss Sullivan," Henri inquired.

When Chloe hesitated for a moment before answering feeling like she would tooting her own horn, Clark began to explain, "Pete and I were about to try and get air into your lungs the way Pete was trained in the boy scouts, but Chloe knew a different way."

It was at that point that Chloe found her voice and took over the explanation of what she had shown them and how well it worked. By the time she and Clark had provided the details of what had happened they heard the wail of the first siren approaching.

The sound of the doorknob being turned snapped Clark's attention back to the present. In a quick burst of superspeed, Clark quickly closed the files he had been working on and filed them away in his desk drawer. As he dropped out of superspeed the door to his office was just beginning to open. Clark wondered to himself if Lutessa still had the same lovely blue-green eyes as she did as a child, or had the world and time changed them. He could have no idea how much his life was going to change when he got his answer.


	3. Secrets and Suspicious Minds Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

_The sound of the doorknob being turned snapped Clark's attention back to the present. In a quick burst of superspeed, Clark quickly closed the files he had been working on and filed them away in his desk drawer. As he dropped out of superspeed the door to his office was just beginning to open. Clark wondered to himself if Lutessa still had the same lovely blue-green eyes as she did as a child, or had the world and time changed them. He could have no idea how much his life was going to change when he got his answer._

As Clark looked up he noticed Alicia standing in the doorway as she ushered Miss Mercier into his office. A moment later, Lutessa Mercier stepped through the door and came into view as Alicia announced, "Clark, this is Miss Mercier."

As Miss Mercier came into the room Clark's enhanced senses picked-up a vibe and a scent from her that he instantly recognized and surprised him, which didn't happen often these days. The next that thing struck Clark's attention was how tall Lutessa was even in her heels; she stood at least two to three inches taller than Alicia which meant she had to be about five-feet nine-inches tall. The quality of her clothes and the fur coat that she was wearing were in keeping of what Clark would expect of a member of the Luthor family, as well as the daughter and only child of a prominent Swiss financier and industrialist. As Lutessa thanked Alicia she had a small smile on her lips which helped give her features the angelic look that Clark remembered from years ago. Yet, as she turned towards him as he stood up to greet her, Clark watched as the smile faded away slightly and a more serious, mature expression took its place. That told him that Lutessa had truly grown up. That estimation was confirmed when he finally got a good look at her eyes. They were still the same blue-green that he recalled, but there were lines of various life experiences at the corners of them. While Clark could still see that there was still something of the little girl in her, there was no denying that the little girl was now a fully grown mature and attractive woman.

However, it was when they made direct eye-to-eye contact that the whole axis of Clark's world shifted. As the old saying goes that the eyes are windows into one's soul, and as Clark looked into Lutessa's he saw not only her soul, but his future as well. For good or bad he knew that he and Lutessa were forever bonded to each other and there was nothing he could do about it.

Within the last few months Clark had finally learned the truth about his Kryptonian origin and heritage. A part of that heritage was the marriage and mating customs of the Kryptonian race. By custom, Kryptonians usually do not marry until they are several years into adulthood, or by Earth standards – sometime in their 30s. More importantly was the fact that adult Kryptonians chose their mates on an instinctive level which meant that when there was a mental and physical connection the two were bound to each other for life. In clichéd Earth terminology, it was love at first sight.

Now, in his nearly thirty-two years of living on Earth, Clark had been in a number of relationships, both emotional and physical. Chloe Sullivan had been his first crush when they had been in middle school together. In fact Chloe had given Clark his first kiss when they were eight soon after she had arrived in Smallville. They had even tried dating at the start of their freshman year of high school, but that had come to end when they kissed again for the second time during the Harvest Festival dance that Fall and discovered that there was no depth to their feelings like there should have been. As Chloe had put it, 'It was like kissing her brother.'

And there had been his most serious relationship to date with Lori Lemaris during his senior year at Met U. He truly thought that she was the love of his life and had wanted to marry her. That love affair had taught him a great deal about the depth of human emotions. Yet, with just one look into Lutessa Mercier's eyes, he now realized that there had been something missing which explained why he was not more heartbroken when she turned down his marriage proposal shortly before both of them had graduated from Metropolis University.

The one thing that surprised Clark was the fact that this had happened with someone from Earth. He had believed that it could only happen with someone of his own race, and since he was the only survivor of Krypton he had thought he was destined to spend the rest of his life alone. Now it seemed that fate had decreed otherwise as he stood there gazing into those eyes allowing himself to be momentarily lost in their depths.

For her part Lutessa was just as momentarily stunned as Clark was. When she had turned her attention from Miss Baker, who had shown her in, to the occupant of inner office she stopped dead in her tracks and looked at the man who was gazing at her in equal fascination. The first thing that surprised Lutessa was his height and the muscular build that could not be hidden by his clothes. Then, as her eyes traveled up to his face, she was struck by how unbelievably gorgeous the man's seemingly perfect features were.

But it was when her eyes directly made contact with his that she knew that she was in trouble. They were this indescribable color of cerulean blue that she had only seen while out on the ocean in a few places in the world that she had ever been to. It was a shade of blue she had loved all of her life. They were also a pair of eyes that she instantly knew she could easily allow herself to fall into and never want to come up again because of the warm and secure feeling it gave her; a feeling she had not felt since she had lost her mother during the war.

The intensity of the gaze she was receiving from the man made her feel a little self-conscious about herself for the first time in years. As she began to feel herself blush slightly, Lutessa was also very aware of the sudden sparking of a warm, delicious feeling flickering to life within her, which only reminded her just how long it had been since she had been involved in any kind of relationship.

And yet there was something else about those eyes that seemed to be trying to stir some kind of memories within her, but she just couldn't grab a hold of it. But any further speculation, or feelings of minor embarrassment were interrupted when the man stepped around from behind his desk as he extended his hand in greeting, and said, "Good morning, Miss Mercier. I'm Clark Kent and I can't begin to tell how sorry I am to be meeting you like this. Be assured you have my sympathy and condolences on the loss of your cousin. Lex and I have been friends since we went to Met U. and roomed together. I really have no words to describe how I am going to miss him."

"Thank you," Lutessa said as she took his hand. At the touch of it a feeling akin to a small shock of electricity shot through her body startling her. Quickly recovering from whatever it was that had just happened as Clark released her hand, Lutessa continued, "In fact Lex is the reason I'm here. He told me that if I ever had a problem I needed help with then I should come to you."

"Of course, I'll do anything I can to help," Clark stated as he showed her to one of the leather bound chairs sitting in front of his desk. As she started to sit and he proceeded to sit on the corner of his desk, Clark asked, "Now exactly what sort of problem is it that a fellow Smallvillian can help you with?"

At the mention of a Smallville, Lutessa looked up at Clark with a look of astonishment on her face. "How did you know I was born in Smallville?"

"Miss Mercier, Smallville is a small town after all, which makes it pretty hard not to know everyone. Add to that the fact that your father owned and ran the chemical/fertilizer plant there, it would be next to impossible for me not to remember his daughter," Clark explained.

Suddenly Lutessa had a flash of a memory recalling those same colored eyes swimming towards her underwater. Realizing the truth of it she exclaimed, "That was you at the bridge that saved me and my father."

"Yes, it was. Just goes to prove that the world can be a small place," Clark replied in a lighthearted manner, hoping to downplay the events of that day. "How are your father and Jean-Pierre doing these days?"

"I talked to my father a couple of days ago and he is doing very well," Lutessa said. "And Jean-Pierre is still driving for my father and taking care of his small fleet of automobiles. How are your friends Chloe and Pete doing," Lutessa asked remembering the other two who had been there that day.

"Chloe is doing what she always dreamed of doing, she is the Daily Planet's top investigate reporter and writes under the name of Lois Lane," Clark answered.

"I've read some of her work over the years," Lutessa said recognizing the name. "She is very good."

"Yes, she is," Clark agreed.

"I especially liked her interview with Marshall Kendric, the author, which surprised me since he has been so reclusive for his entire career," Tess stated. "He is one of my favorite authors."

"Many people agree that interview was one of her better pieces, and it still mystifies them exactly how she was able to get him to talk to her," Clark replied with a slightly amused tone in his voice that Tess noted.

"What about Pete?"

"We lost Pete during the war," Clark said with a bit more feeling than Lutessa thought she would hear. And from the look in Clark's eyes it appeared that he somehow carried some sort of guilt about it. "He flew fighters in Europe before he was shot down and was killed while trying to escape from a prison-of-war camp."

"I'm sorry, Mr. Kent," Lutessa said.

"Not necessary, but thank you," Clark replied. Then with a shrug of his shoulders, he put that memory back in storage before asking, "Why don't you call me Clark and tell me what is this problem that you need my help with?"

"Alright, Clark" Lutessa said with a small smile as she emphasized his name as she said it. "In return I want you to call me Tess."

"Fair enough, Tess," Clark said with a smile in return that made her stomach start doing little flips. "Now to business, what is this problem we can't seem to get to talking about?"

"As clichéd as this may sound, I'm afraid that my life is in danger," Tess stated.

"Just who do think is a threat to your life?" Clark asked.

"Lex's wife," Tess spat out with some venom.

"Lana?" a dumbfounded Clark asked. "Two days ago she was in Reno. Lex's people made sure that she arrived."

"Well, she showed up at the mansion about two hours ago," a very irritated Tess replied, "and ordered me to pack my things and to get out."

"She had no right to do that," Clark said with anger beginning to creep into his voice knowing better than just about anyone that Lana no longer had a legal right to anything that belonged to Lex.

"Well she had the men with her to ensure that her orders were carried out," Tess provided.

"You had better tell me everything that happened," Clark said as he stood up from the desk and sat down in the other chair next to Tess.

"Alright, I had just coming down for breakfast before going to a meeting I had scheduled for this morning to go over the next unveiling of Luthor Enterprise's newest business venture tomorrow, when the front door of the mansion was thrown open and two very large and intimidating men stepped into the foyer," Tess explained. "Right behind them was Lana with four others behind her. She announced, without any hesitation, that since Lex was now gone she was in charge of everything that he owned, which included the mansion. She then gleefully told me that I had an hour to pack my things and get out. If I didn't, her 'assistants' would make sure that I was gone by then. So I began packing under the watchful glare of one of the men that had come with her. By the time I had everything packed and loaded in my car, Lana had already fired nearly two-thirds of the mansion's staff; the ones that had never cared for her and said things about her behind her back for the three years she has been married to Lex."

"Can you describe any of the men who were with her," Clark inquired already anticipating part of her answer.

"There were two who stood out," Tess began. "The first was tall, had dark hair and was dressed in well-tailored clothes. He had a thin scar down the left side of his face and wore an eye patch over his left eye, which was brown in color. He was also one of the meanest looking men I have ever seen."

"Was the other man in his mid-thirties, on the lower end of being tall, well-featured with dark hair, had blue eyes, a thin mustache, and was dressed even better than the first man that you described?"

"Yes," Tess replied quickly realizing that Clark knew who these two were and that was clearly evident from the look she gave him.

"The second man is Vincent Edge," Clark provided. "He is the head of Intergang, Metropolis' crime syndicate, and something we have never been able to prove in court. The first man is Travis Slade. He is in charge of Edge's personal security and handles getting rid of anyone Edge tells him to make disappear. And considering Lana's influence on Intergang through Vincent Edge I have to agree with your concern for your life. With Lex gone, you are now the only surviving heir to the Luthor fortune, which is something that I think Lana will not stand for. So, I think it would be best if we take some steps to keep anything from happening to you. Now, you said something about there being an unveiling tomorrow, I take it you meant the Metro-Star Express?"

"Yes. Tomorrow morning I was supposed to be on board for the inaugural run from Metropolis to Starling City," Tess confirmed. "It and Lex's flight were supposed to be part of our publicity campaign to launch the new transportation branch of Luthor Enterprises, which was to be part of the creation of LexCorp."

"You're determined to be on that train tomorrow," Clark observed from the tone of Tess' voice.

"I have to be Clark," Tess replied. "If I really am the last of the Luthors then I feel obligated to Lex to see this through; to see to the fulfillment of his plans."

"I understand, Tess," Clark told her. "But, you are probably right to be concerned for your safety. So, I hope you don't mind if I accompany you to Starling City tomorrow."

"Not at all," Tess answered. "I'll be happy for the company. But I don't understand what Lana has to do with this Intergang," Tess said perplexed by what Clark had said about that subject. "I just don't see the connection."

"Oh, there is a very strong connection between Lana and Edge's control of Intergang," Clark told her. "You see, they happen to be husband and wife."

"What?!" Tess screamed, unable to help herself when she heard that bombshell dropped on her.

"They were married in 1939 in a little hole-in-the-wall town in Nevada and never got a divorce," Clark said with a small smile at her reaction. "That was part of what Lex had me working on for him for the last month or so."

"That sounds like it is going to be a bit of an explanation," Tess said just as her stomach grumbled at her, causing her blush briefly in embarrassment.

"It seems that I am not taking as good a care of my client as I should be," Clark said teasingly. "Tess, might I interest you in an early lunch while I fill you in on some the more interesting facts about your cousin's wife?"

"I would be delighted," Tess said as began to rise from her chair. "That little witch kept me from eating breakfast this morning."

"Somehow," Clark said with mischievous look in his eye as he too stood up and began directing her towards the door after pulling on the jacket of his suit, "I get the feeling that you wanted to use a similar sounding, but stronger word than that."

"And you would be correct," Tess replied with an acknowledging smile as she followed him to the door and waited for him to open it for her. Clark did not disappoint as he opened the door and then followed behind Tess after she had preceded him.

As they stepped into the outer office and he closed the door, Clark said, "If you will excuse me for just a moment, I have to make a phone call. I need to invite a few more people to join us."

"Of course," Tess commented as Clark stepped over to Alicia's desk and picked up the receiver of the telephone and began dialing a number from memory. She was interested in just who he might be calling to invite to lunch.

A few moments later Clark began talking into the phone, and at the first words Alicia's left eyebrow rose in obvious interest which only intrigued Tess a bit more.

"Hello, Hank... I'm doing okay... Listen, you remember that situation that Lex asked you not to do anything about... Yeah, well it seems that Lana isn't living up to her part of the agreement... I know because I just learned from my newest client a few minutes ago that she is back in Metropolis, and acting like the high and mighty princess of Luthor Manor she has always wanted to be. So, since she broke her end of the deal, I feel that frees us up to do what we wanted to do in the first place... Right... I was just about to take my client to get something to eat over here at the Grill. Why don't you and your crew come on down and I'll treat you to lunch while we hash out what we do from here. You might also extend that invitation to your boss as well... Okay, I'll see you in twenty minutes. I'll let Felix know to show you to our usual spot... By the way, why don't you call and ask your wife and brother to come along as well. I'm sure Alicia wouldn't mind getting to spend lunch with her boyfriend while we talk shop... Alright, I'll see you in a little while... Bye," Clark said into the phone before replacing the receiver back in its cradle before turning towards Tess and the look of natural curiosity on her face.

"That was my friend, Henry Olsen. He is one Metropolis' assistant District Attorneys," Clark told her answering her unasked question. "He was very interested in Lana's situation and wanted to prosecute her on bigamy charges, but Lex decided to give her a chance to bow out gracefully and save himself a major headache of a scandal to go along with a divorce. So he worked out a deal with Lana to go to Reno, Nevada to file for a divorce."

Seeing the confusion on Tess' face, Clark explained, "The state of Nevada has lowered its requirement for someone to establish residency in the state to only six weeks. After that is accomplished a person can file an uncontested divorce and have it quickly granted. The city of Reno has become a very popular place for 'quickie' divorces. Lex had arranged everything for Lana to do just that, and once it was accomplished he was going to give her a very generous settlement to simply go away and disappear. And now that I think about it, her return is a just a little too well timed for it to be simple coincidence."

"I take it then that you think Lana might have had something to do with Lex's death," Tess asked knowing that she had been harboring the same thought herself from the moment Lana shown up at the mansion this morning with the attitude she had been exhibiting.

"I feel that it is a strong possibility," Clark replied. "I know the design of the plane Lex was flying very well. The fact that a wing ripped off while the plane was making an easy turn to line up for landing is just too suspicious to me. But, once Oliver gets the wreckage brought to the surface, then we'll be able to get some answers."

"Now my curiosity is really piqued, Clark," Tess stated. "Obviously you're talking about Oliver Queen, but that begs the question of how you know him and just how do you know about the design of the aircraft Lex was flying?"

"That is fairly simple," Clark answered with a small smile. "And I'll tell you about that in a moment, but first, do you have a place to stay?"

"No, I was planning on checking into a hotel after we were done here."

"How about staying here," Clark offered. "Lex owns the penthouse of this building, and if you stay there it will make it easier for me to keep an eye on you until we get on that train tomorrow morning."

"I thought the whole upper floor was owned by some reclusive-type," Tess replied.

"Yeah, Marshall Kendric," Clark provided.

"Marshall Kendric?" Tess asked in a surprised tone.

"Technically, it belongs to Marshall Kendric," Clark told her. "But that is just a subterfuge that Lex and Lionel cooked up with the writer when he signed an exclusive publishing contract with the Luthor Publishing Company more than twelve years ago. They did it to help keep their little hideaway secret."

"Hideaway?" Tess inquired.

"A few years after Lex's mother died, Lionel began keeping a variety of female companions. None of them lasted more than a year or so, but they were always put up in the penthouse here practically from the moment the place was taken over by Lionel," Clark began to explain. "When Lex began to attend Met U, Lionel had the penthouse partitioned for him to use as a place to stay while he was attending classes."

"That was when you and Lex began rooming together," Tess said recalling what Clark had said earlier.

"Yes, it was, and the first year I was there we had another roommate, Oliver Queen," Clark stated and let that little bit of information sink in before continuing. "In fact it was Oliver's graduation party in the penthouse that drew just a little too much of attention to the actual ownership of the place which brought about the current arrangement."

"That must have been some party," Tess said with a smirk knowing a little bit about Oliver Queen and quite a bit about her cousin.

"It was something alright," Clark said with a fond smile at the memory.

"But how did Kendric get involved?" Tess wanted to know.

"He was at the party and was the only one sober when the police showed up for the second time responding about complaints about the noise," Clark provided. "He took all the heat for the whole thing and kept the police occupied. That gave Oliver and Lex time enough to get out of the building using the private elevator in Lionel's part of the penthouse. In gratitude for keeping his son's name not being associated with any scandal, Lionel agreed to publish Kendric's first novel with the proviso that the Luthors were allowed to put his name on the documents showing the ownership of the penthouse. Lionel did that just in case any nosy reporters started digging into the whole thing trying to find any connection back to Lex and Oliver who had been reported to have been at the party that night."

"As usual, that was smart and highly profitable for Uncle Lionel since in the last twelve years every one of Kendric's novels has been a bestseller, and more than half of them have been turned into movies. Especially 'Through the Eye of War' which won him the Pulitzer last year," Tess stated.

"Yeah, I was with Lex the night that he accepted the award for Kendric," Clark said.

"So you know Marshall Kendric," Tess surmised.

"In a manner of speaking," Clark acknowledged.

During all of this Alicia was listening in rapt attention since she was finding out something new about her boss that she had never heard before. Now she had already known the truth as to just who Marshall Kendric really was, but she was hearing some very interesting history for the first time and she was loving it.

"Do you think you might be able to introduce me to him sometime," Tess hopefully. "Like I said earlier he is one of my favorite authors."

"And he truly appreciated that sentiment," Clark stated with a slightly amused smile on his face which caused Tess' brow crunch up in confusion. Clark's smile only got bigger as he saw the light dawning in Tess' eyes as she quickly began to put the pieces together.

"You're Marshall Kendric," a surprised Tess exclaimed.

"Guilty as charged," Clark agreed enjoying the moment.

"If you're so successful as a writer, why are you working as a private detective?"

"My writing helps pay the bills, but really I like to be able to help people who need it. My being a detective allows me make some difference in this world," Clark told her with a warmth and caring in his voice that as unmistakable. "It may not be anything that makes a major change in the world, but at least I can make something of a difference in the lives of those I help."

After a brief moment, a gentle smile touched his lips as he said, "Now, shall we see about getting you settled in?"


	4. Secrets and Suspicious Minds Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

**The Savoy Grill**

**Metropolis, DE**

"Tess, I would like to introduce you to Felix Vastag. He and his family own and have been running the restaurant and the Ace of Clubs for the last three years," Clark told her when they had walked into the Savoy Grill after getting her car parked in the building's underground garage and her luggage moved into Clark's portion of the penthouse.

As Clark was beginning his introduction, Tess found herself looking at a short, rotund man with snow-white hair that was thinning on top. He wore a pair of wire-rimmed glasses and had a kindly expression on his face. To Tess he looked like what everyone might hope their grandfather would look like. She also recognized the man's last name as being Hungarian in origin.

"Uncle Felix, this Tess Mercier," Clark continued the introductions. "She is my newest client, and she also Lex's cousin."

"It is a pleasure to meet Miss Mercier," Felix said in slightly accented English. "I am also sorry about Alexi. He was a good boy."

"Thank you, Mr. Vastag..."

"Please, call me Uncle Felix. Everyone does."

"Of course, Uncle Felix. And, thank you for your thoughts about Lex," Tess replied unable to keep the smile from her face.

"Uncle Felix, we need to use the private dining room," Clark told Felix. "We're expecting five others to be joining us in a few minutes."

"No problem, a megmentö," Felix said with a smile.

"Also, Alicia's boyfriend is going to be coming too. So, can you hold a table for them?"

"Again, no problem."

"Thank you, Uncle Felix."

"By the way, a megmentö, a moment ago there was a man who said he needed to see you. He said he would wait for you in the bar," Felix told Clark.

"In that case, Uncle Felix, would you please show Tess to the dining room while I see what this guy wants," Clark asked. When he saw Felix's nod of acknowledgment, he continued, "Thank you, Uncle Felix. Tess I shouldn't be a moment. By the way, is there is anything I can you get from the bar?"

"Can they do a Mojito Royalé," Tess asked. When Clark nodded, she continued, "Then that is what I'll have, but can you ask them to use a double shot of Bacardi?"

"Don't worry Tess, I'll be sure they 'splice the mainbrace' and use a good brand of champagne instead of the usual club soda," Clark said as he turned and headed towards the entrance of the Ace of Clubs.

Tess couldn't help the small chuckle she had at Clark's using the British nautical term for the issuing a double daily ration of the rum given to their seamen as she followed Felix towards the private dining room. As Felix opened the door to the dining room and ushered her in, Tess asked, "Uncle Felix, you called Clark 'a megmentö'. Isn't that Hungarian for 'my savior'?"

For a moment, Felix had a look of surprise on his face as Tess revealed the fact that she knew at least something about the Hungarian language before replying, "You are correct."

"Why do you call him that," Tess inquired as she switched over to Felix's native language.

"It is very simple. He is our savior, me and my family," Felix responded in the same language as he led the way to the private dining room. "Me and my family are Jewish and were being forced to work for a Luftwaffe general in France as his personal staff in 1943. It was either that or be deported to the east. When Clark's OSS team raided the general's villa in the south of France to kidnap him he found us there and he brought all of us back with him when he flew the general back to Gibraltar."

Tess quickly understood what Felix was not saying. Clark brought Felix and his family back with him because he knew that if they had been left behind they would have been sent to a concentration camp since the general would no longer be there to keep them from such a fate.

"So how did you end up here in Metropolis?" Tess asked.

"Again, I have a megmentö thank for that," Felix told her. "He got his father to arrange visas for my whole family to come directly to the United States. He also arranged with Lex to get me the money to help me buy the restaurant and club."

"How did Clark's father help get your visas," a now curious Tess asked.

"His father is a U.S. Senator from the state of Kansas," Felix replied with a smile.

Tess was pleased with what she had just heard. A man she barely knew and already had strong feelings for obviously had a very caring and compassionate side to him. That fact only helped to endear him to her even more.

Tess then thought about the young woman in the lobby who had directed her to Clark's office and recalled her name. "Uncle Felix, would Bianka, the receptionist in the lobby, happen to be one of your daughters?" Tess said as she gave voice to the question that suddenly popped into her head.

"Actually she is my niece," Felix stated with a warm smile. "Lex arranged with the building's management to give her job which helped her to be able to get an immigration visa to come here. Now if you will excuse me I need to get back to the kitchen."

With that Felix turned and left, closing the door to the dining room behind him leaving Tess to look about the room. In the center of the room was a sizable circular table that could easily have seated a dozen people and was covered in a quality linen table cloth. The room itself was paneled in a light oak and a several tables and lined the walls. The thing that caught Tess' attention was the fact that there were no windows and the walls themselves seemed to have been very well insulated since she could hear absolutely no sound through them from either the restaurant itself or from the street outside of the building.

_**Meanwhile, In the Ace of Clubs...**_

After leaving Tess with Uncle Felix, Clark had stepped over to the restaurant's entrance into bar area of the Ace of Clubs. A quick sweep of the current patrons revealed to him that the man who was looking for him was standing at the bar nursing a drink. It had been awhile since he had seen his friend use this particular persona. In fact, it had been more than a year since his friend had done something like this. The HRA had given him the excuse he had been looking for to retire from the hero business and settle down. But, now it looked like things were starting to occur that might change all of that.

Clark walked up to the man and announced his presence by saying to the bartender, "Gregory, put that drink on my tab. Also, I need a Mojito Royalé with a double shot of Bacardi along with your best champagne and give me my usual."

"Sure thing Clark," Gregory said from behind the bar as he started to take care of Clark's order.

The man straightened up on hearing Clark's voice and turned around to reveal a man nearly as tall as Clark with dark brown hair and a pair of penetrating aqua blue eyes. Some superb make-up, which included a false mustache, obscured his regularly handsome features that were very well known to the world. The man's now slightly menacing features took on a slight smirk as he stayed in role and simply said, "Kent."

"Malone," Clark returned the greeting. "It has been awhile since I've seen you around here."

"Yeah, it has been," 'Malone' replied.

"Well, it must have been something important for you to go to all this trouble," Clark stated as he lowered his voice slightly so no one could over here them as they talked.

"That is something of an understatement," the man supplied. "Intergang is beginning to flex its muscles again and they need to be stopped."

"For some reason that doesn't surprise me too much," Clark said. "I think Lana is manipulating Edge which would explain Intergang's sudden surge in activity."

"It would also explain the reason that a $250,000 contract has been put out on your newest client," 'Malone' told Clark.

"Whoa... Lana really must want all of the Luthors, of any variety, out of the way," exclaimed a rather surprised Clark.

"So it would seem," 'Malone' agreed. "The strange part of it was the stipulation that it had to be low profile and made to look like an accident."

"That seems to be Lana's usual M.O. They want to keep any possible suspicion from leading back to her or them," Clark suggested as he quickly thought about the matter. "The problem is with a quarter of a million dollars up for grabs there is going to be a lot of punks out there who will do it for less just to get the money without any regards to any conditions put on the contract."

"True enough," 'Malone' had to agree. "We both know that Edge is very picky and meticulous about how his contracts are carried out. He would more than likely kill anyone who didn't carry out the contract to the letter. But you never know. That large amount for a single hit shows that they are desperate to make sure that your client ends up dead, so Edge might not really care. And your point of some punk on the street getting lucky would not necessarily lead back to Intergang. So, I think you had better keep your client close to keep her safe."

"That was my plan to start with," Clark said with a smile. "Thanks for the warning, Malone."

"Not a problem, Kent," he replied. "I still owe you a few."

"You don't owe me anything, but thanks all the same," Clark told him. "By the way, how are the wife and kids?"

"They're doing just fine. In fact, we are going to be having a party at the house on New Year's Eve. If you and your lady friend are free, you might stop by," 'Malone' responded.

"If this thing with Lex is cleared up by then, we just might," Clark said. "I'll be seeing you around, Malone."

"You take care, Kent," the man said before turning and walking out of the club.

As Clark waited for Gregory to finish his drink order he mulled over what 'Malone' had told him. This latest act of Lana's just made it more imperative that something is done to neutralize her ability to make trouble, and that was what this upcoming meeting was supposed to be all about. It also meant that steps beyond the ordinary were probably going to be required. That was one reason he was glad that Chloe was going to be at the meeting, he also got a little bit smile on his face knowing that she was going to enjoy seeing Lana get her just desserts.

A few moments later, Clark was making his way back to the dining room with the drinks Gregory had made for him when he spotted the first two people to arrive walk into the restaurant and were making their way towards the same destination as Clark. The first of the two was a blonde woman of medium height and had a smile that for most of his life had never failed to light-up whatever room she was in. The other was a younger man in his mid-twenties with a camera case slung over one shoulder who had short brown hair and smiling blue eyes that made his face look younger than it really was.

"Chloe, Jimmy," Clark greeted them. "I'm glad you could make it. You're the first to arrive."

"It's great to see again, C.K.," Jimmy said, "but what is all the mystery about? My brother's call didn't really provide us with a lot of details."

"I have to agree with Jimmy; Hank's phone call wasn't exactly what I would call illuminating," Chloe added.

"Everything will be explained it a little bit," Clark replied. "But first, Jimmy you have your choice of sitting in on this meeting, or having lunch with your girlfriend, who just happens to know that you are coming. So, what will it be?"

"Like I really have to think long and hard on that one; I'll take my girlfriend every time," Jimmy replied.

"I thought as much," Clark told him. "That is why I had Felix hold a table for the two you."

"Thanks, C.K."

"No problem, Jimmy. Why don't you go let Alicia know that you are here, and would you ask her to bring me those files in my desk?"

"You got it," the younger man enthusiastically replied.

"Thanks Jimmy, and I promise that you won't miss out on any of the upcoming fun. So it is a good thing that you brought your cameras with you."

"You know I never go anywhere without them," Jimmy said as he began to turn to make his way to Clark's office. "Besides, Perry would have my head if I didn't and missed out something that someone else got instead of the Planet. I'll see you guys later."

As Jimmy left, Chloe fell in beside Clark as they continued towards the dining room, and asked him in her mind, _"I don't suppose you might want to give me some kind of hint as to just what is going on?"_

Clark had his usual tone of voice in his mind that went along with his trademark goofy, lopsided grin as he thought back at her, _"You mean Fate hasn't clued you into any of this before now?"_

"_Clark, you know that like you I only let that part of me out when it is necessary, and so far there has been nothing to really indicate that there is anything out of the ordinary to justify doing that,"_ Chloe retorted.

"_Okay, I'll grant you that," _Clark said as they reached the door of the dining room and he began to turn the door knob. _"Let's just say that it involves an old acquaintance of ours."_

As Clark pushed open the door he announced to its only occupant, "Tess, here is your drink, and though it has been nearly twenty years, I believe you two already know each other. However, just to be on the safe side, Tess this is Chloe Sullivan, now Olsen, who is my dearest and oldest friend. Chloe this is Tess Mercier, my newest client and Lex's cousin."

As Tess stood to greet Chloe, she quickly looked her over sizing her up. Chloe was a few inches shorter and a few years older than Tess, but there was no denying she had a presence about her that commanded attention. For her part, Chloe was doing the same thing using her own unique set of enhanced senses, courtesy of the Amulet of Anubis, as she read Tess in her own distinctive way. It only took her a moment and what she saw intrigued her. She wondered if Clark already knew the truth about Tess being his destiny among other interesting things she now knew about her.

"Tess, it is a pleasure to meet you again," Chloe said as she took Tess' offered hand. "At least this time there is no life threatening events going on."

"I wouldn't start making assumptions on that just yet," Tess replied. "But it is nice to meet you again. It gives me the opportunity to congratulate you on your writing, which I have enjoyed; especially your interview with Marshall Kendric," Tess finished as she gave a knowing, teasing look at Clark.

"Well, thank you," Chloe responded as she thought to herself, _'Obviously she already knows that little secret about Clark.'_

"But what do you mean by saying I shouldn't start making assumptions about life threatening situations," Chloe asked, and was intrigued by the fact that Tess immediately looked at Clark to give her an explanation.

"Lana is starting to make trouble," Clark provided.

"Lana?!" a surprised Chloe asked.

"Yeah, Lana," Clark confirmed.

"Interesting that you used nearly the same tone of voice as Clark did when he heard the same bit of news," Tess observed with a slight smile on her lips.

One of Chloe's eyebrows rose in interest at Tess statement before she said, "When are we going to finally do something to put that little strumpet in her place."

"Today," Clark replied, and then added, up on seeing the expression of surprise on his friend's face, "In fact it will be right after lunch that she will get the chance to unburden her soul."

Clark's use of those words surprised Chloe a bit since it meant that he was finally going to allow her to do what she had been wanting to do for the last six months. It had only been out of respect for him as her friend and leader of their group, as well as Lex's wishes keep everything low-key, that had kept her from hexing Lana the way she had wanted to.

"_You're serious about this?"_ Chloe quickly thought between the two of them.

"_Deadly serious; just like Lana. 'Malone' just let me know that Intergang has put out a __quarter of a million dollars contract on Tess. S__o you need to be ready,"_ Clark replied in as serious a tone as Chloe had ever heard from her best friend.

"'_**Malone'?!" **_a surprised Chloe said. _"If 'he' came out of retirement for this, it is serious."_

"_Yeah, it is!"_

"Now, if everyone would just get here, we could this show on the road," Clark mumbled a bit impatiently.


	5. Secrets and Suspicious Minds Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

"_Now, if everyone would just get here we could this show on the road," Clark mumbled a bit impatiently. _

As if on cue, the door of the dining room was opened by Alicia, who proceeded to walk into the room carrying several folders in her hands with four other people that were following right behind her; three men and one woman. The first person through the door was a man in his early thirties who stood about six feet in height with brown hair and youthful-looking blue eyes. Right behind him was an older gentleman who looked to be in his late-forties to early-fifties with dark hair, which had been lightly sprinkled with a little bit of gray, and a pair of glasses framed his brown eyes. There was a look in his eyes and the way that he moved made Tess instantly get the feeling that this individual was something of a politician. She had seen enough of them in her life. Next in line was the woman, in her mid-thirties, who stood an inch or so taller than Tess, and like Tess, wore her light brown hair loose and down to her shoulders. She had experienced and knowing green eyes that missed little Tess figured when she looked into them. The last person through the door was a blond haired man in his mid-twenties with brown eyes who was the same height as the woman and built like a tank.

"Thank you, Alicia," Clark said as he took the files from her. "You and Jimmy have a nice lunch; I figure all of this should take about an hour."

"Thanks, boss," Alicia said as she sashayed out of the room, closing the door behind her as she left.

"Well, introductions seemed to be in order," Clark announced as he led Tess over to the older gentleman. "Everyone, this is Tess Mercier, Lex Luthor's cousin and my newest client. Tess, this is Danton Palmerston, Metropolis' District Attorney; Henry Olsen, Chloe's husband and one of our Assistant District Attorneys; Captain Maggie Sawyer, head of the D.A.'s Major Crime Unit, and Sergeant Dan Turpin of the M.C.U."

As the individual greetings played themselves out and everyone took a seat at the table, Uncle Felix came in and personally took their food and drink orders. Once he had left, Palmerston spoke up, "Kent, not that I don't enjoy you treating all of us to lunch, but I hope that it has some better purpose than just a social gathering."

"How about the chance to loosen Intergang's grip on Metropolis," Clark retorted with a knowing smile.

"Just how are you going to be able to do that," Turpin asks with a certain tone in his voice. Dan Turpin didn't care much for private detectives, and Kent was the only one that he had a modicum of grudging respect for. The fact that Kent had saved his life once had a lot to do with it.

"The fact that I have leverage on a very close associate of Vincent Edge," Clark replied. "His wife, as a matter of a fact."

"His wife," both Turpin and Sawyer said at the same time, shocked at the news.

"But Edge isn't married," the district attorney said a moment later.

"Not in this state," Clark provided, "but he did get married nearly eight years ago in Nevada to a nineteen year old young woman known as Helana Krocheski."

"Who the hell is Helana Krocheski?" Turpin asked for everyone who didn't already know the answer to that question. "And just what sort of leverage do you have on her?"

"Well, we can start with bigamy and then bring at least one case of first degree murder to the table to put a cherry on top of it all," Clark supplied. "And the answer to your first question Dan is rather easy; you see Helana Krocheski is better known to the world as Lana Lang."

That bit of news caught two people at the table by surprise and made one very uncomfortable, even though he hid it rather well.

Maggie was the first to recover from Clark's little announcement as she asked, "So, the whole story of her being from a little Kansas farm town that was literally blown away during the Dust Bowl who went to live with her uncle, Phineas Potter, in Los Angeles and was discovered while working in his drug store, is a complete fabrication?"

"I'm afraid so," Clark admitted. "But like any good lie it was built on certain verifiable facts. To start with there was a small town in Kansas named Majel Springs that did have quite a number of families named Lang and Potter living in it for more than sixty years. The town was on a spur of the Santa Fe railroad and noted for the natural springs that gave it its name. But the springs dried up and the town quickly began to wither away. By the time of Dust Bowl the town was already practically deserted and was completely abandoned shortly after that. There were a real Helana Lang and Phineas Potter that had been born in that town, but Helana died at the age of two and Phineas Potter died in the trenches during the First World War.

"Now, Helana Krocheski was born in the coal mining town of Shenandoah, Pennsylvania in 1919. Her parents originally immigrated to the United States from Poland in 1913. Her uncle owned a number of taverns in the town and her father was his partner by the time of her birth. Prohibition had little effect on their business, just like every little town in those days as long as they kept the right people paid off they stayed in business. That was in this environment she was born into and raised in; it also makes it easy to understand the strong sense of self-preservation she has. She started her singing career working in those taverns and it was that talent and her good looks that made her the runner up to being Pennsylvania's representative in 1937 Miss America contest. It was during that competition that a talent scout noticed her and encouraged her to try her luck in Hollywood. A few months later in late 1937, at the age eighteen, that is what she did. She traveled to California accompanied by her boyfriend at the time, one Dr. Phineas Potter. It was his "connections" with the medical community that got Helana some minor, and very discrete, cosmetic surgery to improve her looks. He was also the one that provided Helana with a special hair coloring that turned her into the blonde she is today, and within a year she was the fastest rising star in Hollywood."

It was at that point that there a discreet, soft knock at the door and a moment later it was opened by Uncle Felix who was bringing in everyone's drinks. After a quiet word of thanks from Clark, Felix left as the room's occupants turned their attention back to their host.

"Chloe, neither you nor Henry seemed at all surprised by what Clark has told us so far," Tess said once the door was shut and giving voice to what she had observed.

"That's because Clark made sure that me and Hank were fully aware of what he was doing and what he had uncovered along the way," Chloe replied.

"Tess, Chloe and Hank are two of the people I trust the most," Clark further explained as he looked at her with a completely frank and open expression on his face. "I let them know everything I knew because I wanted to be sure that if anything should happen to me that there would be someone else who knew the truth of what Lana was up to and could do something to let Lex know."

Tess looked into his eyes and saw the honesty of his words there. That fact told her that she would be able to trust them as well.

"Kent, you said that Phineas Potter died in France," Turpin said trying to get the conversation back on to the subject of this meeting before asking, "then who was this new Potter character?"

"Marek Garncarzki," Clark replied. "Garncarzki was a brilliant young chemist who worked in New York manufacturing narcotics. In 1917, when the police were closing in on him, he joined the army under an assumed name to escape being arrested and sent to prison. In the army, Marek's medical knowledge made it easy for him to become a medic. He was serving in the trenches with the real Phineas Potter, who was his friend and the other half of his stretcher team, when a massive artillery barrage wiped out their unit. Garncarzki was the only survivor and fearing that the authorities might catch up with him again, he took the opportunity to switch dog tags with Potter and assumed his identity.

"After the war, Garncarzki returned to the States and went back to school to become a pharmacist as part of his plan to start up his narcotics operation again. After getting his license under the name of Phineas Potter he set up shop in a nice quiet, out-of-the-way place called Shenandoah, Pennsylvania, using his drug store as a front. That is where he and Helana met and when she was sixteen they started a physical relationship. Since then, Dr. Potter has proven to be very helpful in promoting Lana's career."

"Helpful in what ways," Tess asked getting caught up in the story she was hearing and wondering when she might see a variation of this whole affair in one of Marshall Kendric's future books.

"Connections and chemicals," Clark answered. Then seeing the expected questions on their faces, he continued. "Alright, as far as connections go, one of Marek's buddies from before the war was Moxy Mannheim, and it was Moxy who Marek was making the narcotics for in New York. At the time Marek and Helana got to Hollywood, Moxy's representative on the West Coast was Vincent Edge. Marek introduced the two of them to each other at a party that Vincent was having, and he fell hopelessly in love with her. Less than a week later they were married in quick ceremony in Pirawalla, Nevada where Vincent owned a couple of saloons and a casino. Helana had Vincent keep their marriage secret out fear that it might ruin her career. While it was through Vincent's connections with the studios that helped to open a few doors for her, it was Marek and Helana working together to create certain chemical agents that really helped guarantee that her career would get the best chance possible to really take-off.

"Now, I have to give her credit where it is due, Helana's talent as an actress and singer did make her a star. And it is that very talent that allows her to come off acting and looking like a gorgeous blonde show piece that could make an archbishop want to kick a hole in a stained-glass window for taking a vow of celibacy. But make no mistake; she is one smart, ruthless dame who can be as deadly as one Lucrezia Borgia's poison vials. Along with an unusual amount of chutzpah, Helana also has a brain and an uncanny expertise with chemicals that rivals Marek's own. With their combined knowledge, she and Marek came up with a chemical that they put into a perfume that he specially blends for her that helps boost her pheromones to such levels that it allows her to control just about any man she comes across. She first used it on Vincent Edge, and then on every producer and director that came in contact with her. So it's easy see how she got so many breaks so quickly without having once to do the horizontal rumba on any casting couch."

"Why would Marek help her marry Edge, and then continue to help her after that," Turpin wondered. "Or did she use her 'love potion' on him, as well?"

"When he was developing the basic formula, Marek also came up with an antidote to keep him and Helana safe from ever feeling the effects of their own creation. As to why he continued to help, the answer is as easy as power and money. Through Helana's influence on Edge, Marek has the ability to use Intergang to his own ends. And I have to give Marek credit; he is no megalomaniac. He has always been smart in only using that influence in subtle and limited ways to draw as little attention to himself. He doesn't want to run Intergang, he just wants to insure that he continues to profit very quietly from it.

"After she had Edge completely under her spell, Lana turned her attention to those in Hollywood who could help her career the most," Clark continued. "Within the next four years she came to be the highest paid and most sought after actress in Hollywood. Her 'love potion', as you put it Dan, helped open the door and her own talent did the rest. Of course, she would brook no competition. So, when any other actress was seen as a threat, Helana would have Edge put pressure on them either through intimidation, or with some cooked up scandal that would ruin them. By the time the war started she and Edge controlled Hollywood and all of southern California for Intergang.

"During all of this Marek kept busy setting up narcotic labs disguised as cosmetic factories all over the southwestern United States and Mexico. He also became establishing a regional chain of drug stores all across the Western United States as distribution system for his products. Currently, Marek controls nearly all of the major drug production and distribution west of the Mississippi for Intergang."

"I think I am starting to see a pattern here," Maggie said. "Lana married Edge because of his being part of Intergang. Then she married Todd Burtrum and then later his father Nicholas, before turning her sights on Lex for similar reasons I would guess."

"And you would be right, Maggie," Clark agreed. "Shortly after the war began, we all know that Lana Lang, in a fit of very highly publicized "patriotism and love", married Todd Burtrum, the youngest son of Nicholas Burtrum the head of the Burtrum Steel Company. Todd was a newly graduated naval aviator on his way to the Pacific when he met Helana one night at the Hollywood Cantina, and 48 hours later Helana had him walking her down the aisle. Helana had a couple of reasons for marrying Todd, the first of which was the fact she was getting tired of the Hollywood scene and wanted to move on to a bigger challenge; high society. Todd was going to be her means of being invited through the front door. The other reason she did it was to enable herself to get inside information on government contracts and industrial capabilities that she knew Edge would find profitable in many ways.

"Helana's plan was just starting show the first dividends when the unforeseeable happened, Todd was killed at the Battle of the Coral Sea. Fearing losing everything she had started, Helana turned her attention to old man Burtrum himself. Yet, she had one obstacle in her way, Todd's mother. But that was a problem easily solved by a staged auto accident less than a month after Todd's death. In the act of comforting each other, Helana got Nicholas to fall in love with her and he married her exactly one day after the appropriate period of mourning had passed. Then, very conveniently, Nicholas Burtrum dropped dead less than a month later from a massive coronary seizure while still honeymooning on his yacht with his new bride down in Mexico."

"The bigamy charge I knew about," Henry Olsen added to the conversation. "Lex wanted to keep everything quiet for as long as possible, but this charge of murder is news to me. Just who is it she is supposed to have murder herself?"

"Lionel Luthor," Clark responded. Upon seeing the disbelief on everyone's faces, Clark continued, "Lionel Luthor's autopsy gave the cause of death as being heart failure, but what was never brought up in the proceedings was the fact that he was already dying of liver cancer. A physical less than two weeks before his death showed no indications of any heart problems, yet the medical examiner's report described the condition of Lionel's heart as being so damaged and deteriorated that it should have belonged to a man at least thirty years older than he was. It was this unmistakable fact that any first year intern could have diagnosed that aroused Lex's suspicions about Lana and he asked me to quietly start looking into the matter.

"It took me the better part of a month to track down Lana's well disguised past. It was while checking on Nicholas Burtrum's death that I made the connection to it being murder. Like Lionel, Burtrum had no previous history of heart trouble, but his autopsy report showed exactly the same kind of damage and deteriorated condition of his heart that was listed as the cause of death. That fact and knowing of Marek expertise in chemicals started me looking into possible ways of chemically inducing a heart attack while making it look natural, and it didn't take long to find several."

"Kent, pardon me for interrupting," Danton said, "but this all sounds very detailed and you seem very certain that Lana murdered Lionel, and possibly Nicholas Burtrum. Why is that?"

"Because I intercepted a shipment of the cosmetics that Marek personally makes for Helana, and the courier proved to be very cooperative, as well as talkative, after a little subtle persuasion," Clark told the district attorney and caused the corners of Chloe's mouth twitch in brief smile. She knew exactly the manner of persuasive powers Clark had at his disposal.

"_So did you use your old ploy of getting her to look into your soulful, puppy-doggy eyes before hypnotizing her into spilling her guts,"_ Chloe thought with a playful tone to Clark.

"_I have really got to find someone new to start working with who isn't completely aware of all my tricks. How else am I going to keep my air of mystery?"_

"_Air of mystery my foot," _Chloe snorted back at him_. "Besides, I think you already have found that someone."_

"Well, just who was this courier, and what is their connection to Lana Lang," Palmerston asked bringing the two friends' concentration back to the here and now.

"Martha Darrin, Lana's personal assistant and Marek Garncarzki's main squeeze for the last seven years," Clark informed him quickly recovering. "Last week I was in Los Angeles after following up on Burtrum's death in Mexico and keeping an eye on Marek. She and Marek were having lunch when I saw him give her an odd-sized package. I could tell from the way Miss Darrin was dressed she was getting ready to go somewhere. So, after they finished their lunch, I followed them to Union Station where he put her on the train for Metropolis. I made sure I was on that train and that was where I persuaded her over dinner to share the story of what was in the package and everything behind it. She really spilled her guts and that is where I got most of my details from."

"But how can you be sure that whatever chemical that might have been responsible for Lionel's death was in the cosmetics," Danton persisted.

"The train arrived back here in Metropolis late Friday evening, and the next day after Lex had left on his flight to Starling City I took all of the cosmetics over to Dr. Emil Hamilton at Cadamus Labs to run tests on them. As a favor to me and Lex, he worked on them all weekend and sent his test results to me this morning. He also included the results of a screening he did on Lionel's blood that Lex had acquired from the M.E., and it showed conclusively that there was a presence of one of those chemicals in Lionel's blood that can induce heart failure by causing the muscles in the heart to quickly deteriorate causing them to violently spasm and literally tear themselves apart."

"If you suspected foul play where Lionel was concerned, then why didn't Lex say or do something about it," Tess asked.

"Because he didn't know anything about it at the time," Clark replied. "I had only confirmed Lana was married to Vincent Edge earlier that week and had no definitive proof of anything else, Tess. That was one of the reasons that Lex confronted Lana about it and got her to agree to go to Reno to get a 'quickie' divorce in exchange for not having her prosecuted on the bigamy charge. He had personal and business reasons for wanting to keep everything as quiet as possible. He figured that the six weeks it would take for Lana to establish her residency and file for the divorce would give me enough time to prove conclusively one way or the other if Lana had been involved in any way with Lionel's death.

"Neither Lex, or myself, saw any threat from Lana. She was being given an easy and sure way out that would allow her to remain free with her own fortune she got from the Burtrums. There was no logical reason for her not to abide by the agreement she made with Lex."

"I take it you see things differently now," Chloe asked already having some idea of what her friend was going to say. They had both been doing this sort of thing together for too many years for them not to have learned how the other one thought.

"Either she got wind of the other reason for my investigation into her past and struck first being afraid of what Lex would do if it were true that she murdered Lionel," Clark replied. "Or she made a serious miscalculation thinking that by killing Lex first and then trying to have any other Luthor heirs removed from contention..."

"What to mean by that," Tess said being puzzled by it as were most of the others.

"I don't mean to alarm you Tess, but I have reliable information that Intergang, meaning Edge and Lana, has put out a quarter of a million dollar contract to have you killed," Clark provided.

Turpin gave a brief whistle to show his surprise and how impressed he was at that news, before saying, "She really must want you out of the way something bad if she went that high. They only had an open contract for a hundred thousand on John Corben to keep him from squealing to the feds about Intergang; a contract that someone collected on. Just who is your source Kent?"

"Malone," Clark simply said.

"'Matches' Malone," Turpin asked, again impressed at Kent's network of sources.

"For the uninitiated Miss Mercier," the D.A. said, "'Matches' Malone is shady character involved in the various crime families in the eastern part of this country. But, from time to time, he has past information along to police and others that he trusts that has always proven reliable. If he is Mr. Kent's source, then I would have to say that it is true. They want you dead for some reason. It might be best if you got out town, if not the country, for a little while."

"I'll be getting out town tomorrow," Tess replied. "I have to be on the inaugural run of the Metro-Star Express. I have business, both professional and personal, that I need to take care of in Starling City."

"Besides, I believe that Lana is going to be too busy with her arrest on bigamy charges to do much of anything else to threaten you Tess," Clark supplied before looking at Henry Olsen. "Hank, you are going to have to be sure that Lana is kept in jail under protective custody. Don't let Judge Wiesenthal be talked into allowing any sort of bail. Make sure that he is aware of just how much a flight risk she would if she did make bail."

"I'll do what I can Clark, but you know I can't make any promises," Hank Olsen told him.

"I know, Hank. Just to your best and I'm sure that it will be enough."

"Uh, Kent, just one question," Maggie said.

"What's that, Maggie?"

"You said that Lana has this 'love potion' in the perfume she uses, right?"

"Yeah, that was what I said."

"Well what is there to keep her from using it on the police, or anyone else, who comes in contact with her?"

"While Dr. Hamilton was examining the cosmetics I sent to him, someone who was helping him came up with neutral scent that will counteract its effects. We just have to be sure that Lana gets sprayed with it nullify whatever she has on at the time. After that it shouldn't be too much trouble to be sure that she doesn't get any more of the stuff from outside of the jail."

"That sounds reasonable," Danton said. "But exactly when are you planning on going out and arresting her."

"Right after we finish our lunch," Clark told everyone.

"But exactly how will having Lana in jail on bigamy charges help Metropolis loosen Intergang's hold on it," Tess asked.

"When I can prove that Lana murdered Lionel, and had a hand in what happened to Lex, I'm sure she will be more than cooperative in telling all the secrets she knows about the inner workings of Intergang to keep herself from going to the gas chamber," Clark explained. "When that happens she will probably be the one with a contract on her pretty little head. Now, if you will excuse me for a moment, I have to go take care of some personal business. I'll be back in just a few minutes."

As Clark got up and started for the door Danton Palmerston asked, "Kent why do you think Lex's accident wasn't one? From all the preliminary information that has come out it was a flaw in the wing design of the aircraft that caused it to sheer off when Lex and his pilot were making a sharp high speed turn to line up with the airport in Starling City."

"For several reasons, Danton," Clark began. "One, there are several different aircraft companies that want to destroy the reputation of that design which is going to revolutionize the whole industry. Those that don't want to slow it down until they can come up with their design to rival it. So, I wouldn't be putting in stock in the "theories" that their "experts" are providing to the irresponsible members of the media who only want a headline."

"Chloe…" Clark started to say to his friend.

"It's okay, Clark," Chloe interrupted him with a smile. "You don't have to apologize. I know that you don't include me or Jimmy in that group."

"Thanks," Clark said with answering smile before returning to his explanation to the D.A. "The second reason is the fact that the plane Lex was flying was the third of three prototypes build for testing the design. I have flown all three of them myself and have done even riskier maneuvers than what Lex was doing when his plane crashed. And the plane was flying was the one with the least amount time in the air, so there is no way that what happened was due to metal fatigue as has been bandy about by some."

"But you just cannot simply dismiss the possibility that it was a flaw in the design or the manufacturing of the aircraft that caused it to crash," Palmerston persisted as Clark began to open the door of the dining room.

"As matter of fact I can, since that is by far the least likely of scenarios, Mr. Palmerston," Clark said with a sudden icy calm in his voice that altered Chloe and Hank to fact that the D.A. was getting into a very sensitive area. It was always like that with Clark when it involved family. "For the record, I would categorically list that as an impossibility since I happen to know designer personally. In fact I have known the designer all of their life and most of mine. I know just how passionately and meticulously they pursue their work. You see Danton, the designer just happens to be my sister."

With that said, Clark opened the door and left before the D.A. could form any sort of response.

"But I thought the designer of the plane was Oliver Queen's wife, Linda Blake," Palmerston blurted out as the door opened and their lunch was brought into them.

"She is," Chloe spoke up being the only one besides Hank who knew all of the details behind the story of Clark Kent's little sister.

"Wasn't Linda Blake also known during the war as Lady Blackhawk," Tess asked having recognized the name of the only female member of the legendary Blackhawk Squadron.

"You would be correct on that point," Chloe said with a little smile.

"But, then how she be related to Kent," Danton asked.

"Let's just say," Chloe stated with a small knowing smile, "that Clark isn't the only member of the Kent clan who hid their true identity from the world by using a different name than the one they grew up with."

"_Oh boy, is that ever true,"_ Hank Olsen thought to himself.


	6. Secrets and Suspicious Minds Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

**November 17, 1947, 11:47 P.M. (C.S.T.)**

**Quad Cities (Moline, Illinois)**

Without a doubt this was turning out to be one of the most miserable nights that J. J. Belanger could remember as he held the collar of his overcoat closed with one hand while the other was endeavoring to keep his hat in place against the howling wind that was pulling mercilessly at him and his partner. The wind that was blowing out of Canada was so bitterly cold that it was turning what had been a simple mist an hour ago into a driving sleet storm as he and his partner Winslow Schott, slowly made their way back to their car.

During the war they had been one of the best two-man assassin/demolition teams working behind enemy lines for the Allies. After the war they had found a very lucrative position working as private contractors for Hugo Mannheim who ran Intergang's Chicago operations. He had recognized their talents and had kept them gainfully employed for the last two years with contracts all over the western hemisphere. And, it was only the rich payday this job was going to give them that had made them agree in the first place to take this job so soon after their last one, which explains why they were where they were.

They had just done that job on Lex Luthor's plane (which had been a thing of beautiful subtlety on Winslow's part) for the same individual in Metropolis that had put out the current contract they were working on. For some reason it seemed that the big boss in Metropolis, Vincent Edge himself, not only wanted Lex Luthor dead, but he had also wanted his cousin to join him in the hereafter. Of course that had been before he had found himself in some hot water and was now cooling his heels in some Metropolis PD lock-up somewhere. That had only added to urgency of their job. Now, Mannheim himself had doubled the value of the Edge's original contract to insure that everyone aboard the Express never reached their destination. Along with Tess Mercier there were three other people aboard the Metro-Star Express that would prove to be most embarrassing to Edge and Intergang if they were allowed to live to testify, even if it meant killing a bunch of innocent people along with their targets. But that meant nothing to either of them. They were 'mechanics' who were hired to fix problems, not debate the morality or philosophy of their profession.

Usually after they had completed one of their contracts they would always lay low to make sure that there was no blow back that came their way; especially one as high-profile as the Luthor contract had been. But they just had not been able to turn down two combined contracts that paid half a million dollars. When they fulfilled this one, they were planning on taking at least a six months' vacation since they were going to have more than enough money to last them that long, if not longer. Who knows, this might be a good time for both of them to retire; or at least go into semi-retirement.

But then the trouble had started when word reached them in Chicago that the scheduled departure of the Metro-Star Express' inaugural run had been advanced twelve hours. Originally the train was supposed to leave Metropolis at eight o'clock in the morning on the 25th, but for some reason they had changed the time to leave at eight o'clock on the evening of the 24th. That change meant that he and Winslow had been forced to leave late that evening to be in Quad Cities in time, instead of the early morning start they had been planning on. That entailed a hellish drive at breakneck speed at night over roads neither one of them was familiar with. So, by the time they had reached their destination both of them were a bit tired and somewhat anxious that the timing was going to be very tight; a lot tighter than they preferred.

After they had arrived with a little less than an hour before the Express was due into the Quad Cities station, they followed their usual procedure of leaving their vehicle parked a fair distance from the area of their target and proceeded on foot to the tunnel. The reason they were headed for the tunnel was due to the fact that Edge had originally wanted the whole thing to look like an accident, and Mannheim had made it mandatory. Therefore, Winslow's plan was to place a small charge of explosives on one of the tracks a mile or so inside the eight-mile long Rock Island Tunnel that Metro-Star had run under the Mississippi River. The timer of the bomb was to be triggered by the electrical charge that traveled ahead of the Express along its magnetic levitation track. Ten seconds after it was started the bomb would destroy the rail just in front of the Express that should be traveling at more than 200 M.P.H. by that time as it would still be accelerating towards its top cruising speed of 325 M.P.H. just minutes after leaving the Quad Cities Station. At that speed the derailment of the train was sure to kill everyone aboard and destroy any evidence that it had been anything but an accident. It was even possible that damage to the tunnel would be so extensive that it might cave-in on itself, burying everything.

That was the reason that they were out here in the middle of the night slogging through the last little bit of the way back to their car across some rather marshy and muddy ground in what was quickly becoming an ice storm. The snow from yesterday's storm had melted during the afternoon turning the ground into a quagmire, which had only made their trip to and from the tunnel exhausting and messy.

Not caring about the collection of mud and muck on their shoes and the lower parts of their pants J. J. and Winslow quickly got into their car. Only a moment later the engine roared to life, but the vehicle didn't move. They had been instructed to wait and be sure that they got confirmation that the train had really derailed and been wrecked inside the tunnel before leaving; they were only going to be paid after it had been verified that their targets were dead.

The minutes slowly drug by as they waited for the train and the car's heater to banish the cold they had been feeling in their bones since they had left the tunnel. Finally the blast of Express' twin air horns pierced the night as its blazing headlamp suddenly came flashing into sight. Moving faster than any train before it, the two men watched as the Metro-Star Express sped to what they were sure was its destruction.

The once the train had completely disappeared into the tunnel, Winslow Schott looked at the luminescent face and hands of his watch for a few moments before beginning to count down.

"10… 9… 8… 7… 6… 5… 4…"

It was at that point that the two men heard a "thumph" like-noise from the rear seat that was instantly replaced by the sound of "tick-a… tick-a… tick-a". Switching on the interior lights and looking quickly behind them, both men saw, to their horror, Winslow's bomb sitting in the middle of the back seat as the hand of the mechanical timer attached to it swept past "3" and then "2". Frantically grabbing for the door handles, J. J. Belanger and Winslow Schott had barely started to pull on them when the bomb went off consuming the car and its occupants in a ball of fire and destruction.

Neither one of the two men would ever know that they were only one of several attempts on the lives Tess Mercier and her friends aboard the Metro-Star Express that ended badly for all of their would-be assailants.

**Meanwhile, aboard the Metro-Star Express…**

Clark was sitting in the lounge/observation section of the Luthor family private car that was part of the mix of maglev railcars that made up the Express when he heard the explosion with his heightened hearing. With him were Tess, Chloe, Jimmy and Alicia. Chloe and Jimmy were there to cover the story of the Express' first run for the Daily Planet from a personal point of view. Alicia had been a last minute addition, at Clark's suggestion, since she really didn't have any real business to keep her in Metropolis and it gave her and Jimmy a chance to spend more time together. While that had been true enough, Clark also wanted another member of his team along just in case something unknown and unforeseen came up. In spite of all of things his powers and abilities allowed him to do, the one thing Clark had learned over the years was the value of having others to back him up, especially in areas where he had little or no experience, such as magic.

At the time that Clark heard the detonation of Winslow's bomb, Jimmy and Alicia were regaling Tess with some of Clark's exploits at being a private detective, especially the less than spectacular, and thus humorous, ones. Quickly focusing his other senses in the direction of the explosion as the train sped along, it took only a moment for his eyes to confirm what his ears had already told him. Returning his attention to his surroundings, Clark gave a resigned sigh and shake of his head that Chloe didn't miss just before she heard his thoughts.

"_It seems that protection ward you placed on Tess is working,"_ he told her as he replayed what he had seen and heard for her. _"Thank you."_

"_No thanks are necessary Clark, but you're welcome,"_ Chloe returned. _"I am not going let anything happen to Tess if I can help it."_

As Clark gave a brief nod of acknowledgment to her, Chloe could feel from within her that Fate was more than satisfied that two former agents who had once fought for Order, and had since fallen to the side of Chaos, had been given the ironic justice they deserved by their own device of destruction.

As Chloe absently listened to Alicia and Jimmy talking with Tess, she also felt satisfied at what had happened nearly eight hours ago when she had finally gotten the chance to allow Lana to "unburden her soul".

_**Flashback… Luthor Mansion, earlier that afternoon…**_

The snowstorm that had been predicted for that evening had arrived early and with a vengeance. What had started out as a light dusting of snow falling on the small caravan of five vehicles as it made its way out of downtown Metropolis and headed towards the Hampstead borough of the city was a full blown snowstorm by the time they reached their destination nearly twenty minutes later. As the procession pulled past the two-story stone gatehouse of the 500-acre Luthor estate, it was being battered by high winds and blowing snow.

The vehicle leading the way was a 4-door 1946 Buick Roadmaster that was driven by Henry Olsen. The passenger sitting next to him was his boss, Danton Palmerston, who was wearing his best poker-face to hide his anxiety about the coming confrontation. He tried several times in the last hour or so to get a call through to Mr. Edge or Mrs. Luthor to warn them, but it seemed that no calls were going through. And, just before they had arrived at the Luthor estate he saw why none of his calls had gone through; several large tree branches had broken loose and destroyed two whole sections of phone lines. The phone company's repair crews were already on the scene doing their best to restore service even in the weather that was worsening by the moment.

The next two vehicles were an unmarked police vehicle being driven by Dan Turpin and a regular police cruiser carrying two officers assigned to the Major Crimes Unit; Maggie Sawyer was in the unmarked vehicle with Turpin. The fourth car was a 1939 silver-colored LaSalle convertible coupe was being driven by its owner, Jimmy Olsen, while Chloe was sitting in the passenger seat next to her brother-in-law. Bringing up the rear of the convoy was Clark Kent's 1939 crimson-red Packard 12 Special which carried him and Tess Mercier who was now wrapped in a large full-length hooded blue fox fur coat that she wore over the dark blue wool pants suit she had changed into just before they had left to go to the Luthor mansion. She had exchanged her earlier outfit for this new one because it provided a greater measure of protection against the cold of the storm she had realized was coming sooner than anyone else had thought and was now battering Metropolis and the surrounding area.

The line of cars proceeded down the mile-long road that eventually brought them to the main portico, or formal entrance, that was supported by massive 50-feet tall limestone columns at the front of the Luthor mansion known as Earlmarsh Hall. The original Luthor Mansion had been built in the late 1850's by Lex's great-grandfather, Alexander Luthor, whom he was named after. It had been built from red brick in a Tudor style of architecture and stood for more than forty years before being torn down in late 1900 by Lex's grandfather, Lachlan Julius Luthor.

In its place the estate known as Earlmarsh Hall had been built as a wedding present for Lachlan's second wife, Jillian. When it was completed in early 1906 after five years of construction it was considered to be the epitome of the 'Gilded Age' mansions. The six-story mansion was built of Indiana limestone and patterned after the Georgian mansions of England. To keep the proportions correct, three stories were built underground. The mansion had 147 rooms with 45 bathrooms which were finished in Italian marble and was furnished with Oriental rugs, French furniture, medieval tapestries, paintings and sculptures by the masters, as well as chandeliers in nearly all of the rooms. On the second floor were the master bedrooms, two offices, a breakfast room and the many guest suites.

The mansion further boasted of having half-a-dozen elevators, a 64-foot-long ballroom, and an organ with three-story pipes. The subterranean floors housed a bakery, a carpenters shop, a gymnasium, a refrigerating plant, emergency generators, a movie theater and an extensive telephone system, along with an underground firing range. There was also a massive wine cellar shielded by three doors which had kept the Luthors well stocked in all manner of alcoholic beverages throughout the days of Prohibition.

It took a sizable staff to maintain such a palatial estate. In all more than two hundred people were employed in maintaining Earlmarsh Hall. A team of trained mechanics was employed to service the estate's fleet of chauffeur-driven cars, while some 50+ live-in servants that occupied the service wing of the mansion itself. More than a third of the staff was made up of the locally hired groundskeepers that kept the grounds and gardens of the 500-acre property immaculate.

Clark had it directly from Lex himself that the up keep of Earlmarsh Hall was more than $1,000,000 a year, which his lawyers had found some legal way to write off on the company's annual business and tax report. Lex thought of Earlmarsh as more of a museum than a home, but it had been both his grandfather's and his father's pride and joy. Lex had made that point once when he told Clark that Lionel had been proud of the fact that Henry Ford had once told a friend of his father's after visiting Earlmarsh that, "It was a great experience to see how the rich live."

Several cars were already parked in the driveway that ran under the portico which meant all of the cars approaching the front of the Luthor mansion were going to have to park in the open area directly in front and a little below the portico itself. Once they did, the occupants of the vehicles piled out and headed quickly towards what little protection the portico offered against the blowing snow and wind. When they arrived at the front door Clark gently took a hold of Tess' fur covered arm and directed her a little to the side where they would not be seen. As he did, Clark bent down to her ear to be sure she would be able clearly hear what he was about to tell her.

"Tess, I want you to wait out here with me until it's the right moment."

"The right moment for what," Tess asked in a slight amount of confusion.

"The right moment to let Lana see that you are still very much alive," Clark said with a small smile. "I'm hoping that seeing you is going to be enough of a shock to her that she'll accidentally says something she shouldn't."

"Do really thing that will work?" Tess asked a little unsure that Lana would be that likely slip up.

"I would almost be willing to bet on it," Clark said already knowing that Tess was going to be the trigger of Chloe's spell that was going take care of Lana Lang once and for all.

Hank rang the doorbell as the rest of the group waited.

Lana Lang, a.k.a. Helana Krocheski, was in her boudoir in the Master suite trying on the mourning outfit she was going to wear to Lex's memorial service she was going to arrange to be held on Friday. The outfit itself had been designed and made for her more than a month ago. It had just taken this long to finally arrange for Lex to be in a situation where his death would easily be believed to be nothing than another unfortunate accident that had once again befallen to the man she was currently married to. Now, she was finally going to be able to wear this cunning little number, and would soon have complete control of the entire Luthor Empire at her disposal once there were no more relatives to stand in her way. She was already planning on putting on a performance at Lex's memorial service that would be sure to get her another Oscar from the Academy if only they knew the truth.

Just how Clark Kent had discovered the truth about herself was something that still worried Lana. She had tried her special perfume on Clark years ago, but like Lex it had not worked. That had forced her to depend on her own personal charms and acting ability to get Lex to fall in love with her, but she had utterly failed with Clark. He had proven to be completely indifferent to her charms even though she had subtly tried her best. It still intrigued and frustrated her that Clark Kent had been the first and only man who had ever been entirely beyond her ability to bewitch in any way. It was such a shame that he and all of his friends were going to have to be permanently dealt with if Vincent and Intergang were going to really take control of Metropolis.

Vincent Edge was the only man she had ever had any emotion for that came close to being love. That was the reason eight years ago, shortly before the war, she had given him a son that only three people knew anything about; or least she believed that. Yet, knowing Kent's ability to ferret out information there was a chance that he might also be aware of the existence of her son Morgan.

The man of her thoughts was in the room enjoying the view of his wife modeling the outfit she would be wearing this coming Friday. Ever since Lana had married Lex, Vincent Edge had slowly and quietly been increasing his influence within Luthor Enterprises as a means to disguise Intergang's growing international operations. Things had started out small so as not to arouse any suspicion. For nearly two years things had gone smoothly with Intergang's influence steadily increasing all over the world since the end of the war. Then Lionel Luthor had begun to suspect something was going on within his empire that he was completely unaware of. It was for that reason that he had asked Lana to kill Lionel, to stop him before he found out the truth of what was really happening. Now, once Lex was officially dead and buried, soon to be joined by his cousin, they would have the means to truly give Intergang a worldwide front of respectability and international influence.

Yes, in Vincent Edge's mind, things were finally going to be the way they should be. By the end of the year, he and Lana would no longer have to hide their marriage along with their son. And finally, he was going to really be able to make Intergang the dominate force in the world of crime that it was meant to be. All in all, 1947 was ending as a good year for Intergang and 1948 looked to be even better.

It was at that point that there was a discrete knock on the door.

"Come in Norris," Lana directed.

The door of her boudoir opened to admit a man in his late-fifties dressed in a traditional suit of clothes that seemed to be worn by every butler in the world. Norris came to within what was accepted as the respected distance from his employer and announced, "Madam, there are some visitors insisting on seeing you. They say that it is most important."

"Exactly who are they, Norris," Lana inquired.

"Mr. Palmerston and Mr. Olsen from the District Attorney's Office, Miss Lane and her partner from the Daily Planet, and four members of the police."

"Tell them I'll be down shortly," Lana told her butler.

"Of course, madam," Norris said before turning and leaving the room.

"I wonder what they could want," Lana thought out loud.

"It can't be anything too serious or Danton would have called us to let us know what was going on," Vincent Edge said in response as he rose from where he had been sitting.

"I guess we'll just have to see what it is they want," Lana realized, but was still a bit concerned about the whole thing.

Seeing the worry on her face, Edge told Lana, "Don't worry about it. Whatever it is I'll take care of it."

"You don't think this could have anything to do with Kent do you," Lana suddenly asked with dread evident in her voice.

"Not a chance," Vincent said with confidence. "I had Travis send his best men to take care of Clark Kent and all the evidence he has about our marriage. Travis promised me that he was finally going to take care of Mr. Kent once and for all."

"Have you or Travis heard anything from them," Lana queried as she and Vincent headed towards the door.

"No, but I don't know what even the seemingly invincible Mr. Kent could do against half a dozen men. But I'll have Travis check on it just to be sure," he replied in confident tones to reassure his wife as they left the room and began walking down the long gallery hallway that led the stairway. "You know that Travis has never let us down before."

As they descended the stairs together, Vincent and Lana saw exactly what they were told to expect as far as their "guests" were concerned. Danton Palmerston and Henry Olsen were at the front of the small group of people. Behind them were Maggie Sawyer and Dan Turpin with two uniformed police officers. A little off to one side stood observing the scene about to be played in front of them was Lois Lane and her partner Jimmy Olsen. Standing directly in front of them blocking their way were Travis Slade and a couple of his boys.

"Good afternoon, Mr. Palmerston," Lana said graciously as she was halfway down the staircase. "What brings you out on such a beastly day?"

With no pleasantries or preamble, Henry Olsen announced, "Lana Luthor, a.k.a. Helana Krocheski, you are under arrest on the charge of bigamy."

"Bigamy?!" Lana stated in an incredulous voice even though her insides had just turned to ice with fear. "And just who is it I am supposed to be married to, and just who is it that is making this preposterous allegation? I feel I have a right to know just who my accuser is."

Without missing a beat Hank said, "You have been married to the man standing next to you for the last ten years, Vincent Edge. As far as your accuser goes," he continued before turning and looking at Turpin. "Dan, if you would please?"

At that Dan Turpin went over to the front door and opened it. Leaning out, he made a quick motion with his hand beckoning someone from outside to come in. That individual was the one person that Lana didn't want to see at that particular moment, Clark Kent wearing a tan-colored, lined overcoat and a dark brown fedora. Just as she felt the blood starting to drain from her face, someone else stepped into the foyer of the mansion whose features were concealed by the hood of the large blue fox fur coat that they were wearing. When that person reached up and threw back the hood and revealed the features of Tess Mercier the color returned to Lana's face rather quickly; in fact it returned almost immediately. At the mere sight of Tess Mercier standing there alive and well, caused the coloring of Lana's face to continue to increase in deepening shades of red as the raging anger and hatred for Lex's cousin that she harbored, and had until that very moment concealed so well, simply erupted from deep within Lana.

"_**Damn It!"**_ Lana screamed at the top of her lungs as she whirled and looked accusingly at Vincent Edge. "You promised me that you were going to put out a contract on her so large that she would be dead by lunchtime. What is the point of being married to the head of the "all-powerful" Intergang if he can't even arrange for a simple little murder to be performed?"

Then, as she continued down the stairs, Lana tore into Vincent's right-hand man, "And Travis, you were supposed to have your best men take care of Kent. Well, you obviously failed to find men who were good enough to do the job, you son-of-a bitch!"

"Oh, and don't think I've forgotten about you Danton," Lana proclaimed as reached the bottom of the stairs and walked forward to confront the District Attorney. "You've been on Intergang's payroll your entire career and you couldn't take the time to call and let us know what Kent and Olsen were up to.

"Christ, I'm surrounded by incompetents," Lana declared to everyone in the room, but especially to Vincent and Travis as she began to move in the direction of Clark and Tess. "It's a good thing you had me take care of killing Lionel myself, Vincent, or you would have probably have found someone who would have some way to have screwed that up as well. But, I do have to congratulate you Travis. I'm surprised that you were able to find someone proficient enough to come up with a plan to take care of Lex, let alone that succeeded as well as it did."

By this point Lana had reached her destination as she stood in front of Clark and Tess just glaring at them. The shimmering highlights of her blonde hair only made the nearly maniacal gleam in her ice-blue colored eyes appear more menacing as she stared first at one and then the other as she began to breathe in and out quickly.

"I can see now that this is just one more thing that I'll have to care of myself," Lana said in an eerily calm voice as her eyes finally stopped moving between the two people standing in front of her and came to rest on Tess. For the space of a couple of heartbeats Lana's gazed was locked onto that of Tess'. Then, as her beautiful face became contorted into a bestial countenance of rage and loathing, Lana lunged towards Tess with her fingers spread wide with their claw-like fingernails reaching for their prey as she screamed, _**"Die Bitch!"**_

Naturally Clark and Chloe, along with Hank and Jimmy, had been expecting the outburst from Lana. But the vehemence of Lana's hatred for Tess was a bit of a surprise to the four of them. Everyone else in the foyer had been shocked into silence and immobility by Lana's outburst as she had continued down the stairs moving first to the district attorney before coming to stand directly in front of Clark and Tess. Vincent Edge and Travis Slade knew instantly what Lana had confessed meant for Intergang and themselves. Danton Palmerston was free-falling into a state of anguish as he realized that his career was over and his reputation was completely ruined by what had just been revealed to everyone. Maggie Sawyer and Dan Turpin, along with the two other police officers, were just as stunned by what they had just heard.

Tess was equally as astonished as the others by Lana's enraged confession. She knew that Lana didn't like her, but she never imagined the depths of the hatred that she felt towards her. Yet, there was no denying the murderous intent that Tess saw in Lana's eyes just before she lunged at her screaming for her death.

As Lana had stepped up to them, Tess had instinctively moved herself into a fighting stance. So, even as Clark was starting to move to protect her, like lightning Tess unleashed a powerful high snap kick that connected squarely with Lana's chin. Stunned almost to the point of unconsciousness, Lana was literally launched backwards a few feet into the air before she came crashing down on the marble floor of the foyer, which completed the job of knocking her out.

Clark quickly stepped over to where Lana was laying out cold on the marble floor. Bending down, he took both of her hands in his and turned the palms up so he good get a better look at her fingernails. "Just as I was afraid," Clark announced as held Lana's hands up so Tess could easily see what it was that he had found. "She had a couple of those poison caplets I told you about glued the underside of her nails. Jimmy, I want you to take pictures of these. They may be needed later as evidence after they are removed."

As Jimmy moved to comply with Clark's request, both Clark and Dan Turpin saw a motion out the corner of their eyes as the two men standing on either side of Travis Slade started to reach for the guns they were wearing under their coats. In an instant, Clark had drawn both of his Browning Hi-Power 9mm semi-automatic pistols and was standing with each of them aimed directly at both men who were still in the process of drawing their own weapons. Dan was only a heartbeat behind Clark in getting out his own pistol which he had aimed directly at Slade.

"Call them off, Cyclops," Dan instructed Slade, intentionally using the nickname he knew Travis detested in the hopes of goading him into doing something stupid.

Travis Slade was a professional and nobody's fool; he knew, at least for the moment, the odds were completely stacked against him and Vincent. He realized that there would be another time and another place to do what he really wanted to do as he calmly told his men, "Stand easy and don't do anything stupid, either of you."

And that was the way the rest of that situation played itself out, calm and easy. Vincent Edge, Travis Slade, and Danton Palmerston were all arrested and taken downtown for booking. Lana was taken to the hospital to be checked out and was being held overnight for observation to see if she might have suffered from a concussion. Even before they had made it to police headquarters for his booking, Palmerston was already offering to turn State's evidence with everything he knew about Intergang for immunity from prosecution. It now appeared that the former district attorney was going to be an even better witness against Intergang than Lana might be.

The sound of the laughter and conversation surrounding her brought Chloe back to the here and now. Tess was giggling hysterically at something Jimmy had told her, and by the frown on his face Chloe could tell that it had been about Clark. Jimmy always was the jokester in the group, but everyone appreciated that about him. At least they did when they weren't the target of one of his pranks or humorous stories.

After looking briefly at her watch, Chloe announce to everyone, "I think it's time we all turned in for the night. It's only going to be a few hours before we arrive in Starling City. I've got a feeling that tomorrow is going to be a long day for everyone."

Both Jimmy and Alicia picked up on that simple statement; usually when Chloe said something like that it you normally got it by the bucketful.

"Sounds like a good idea to me," Jimmy said in agreement.

"Me, too," Alicia chimed in with a certain amount of enthusiasm.

"Oh, brother," Chloe sighed recognizing the tones in their voices. "I mean get some rest you two. I don't want you wasting the entire night rutting around in your cabin."

"Okay, I promise, we won't waste the 'whole' night," Jimmy said with playful smirk on his face as he led Alicia back to the cabin they had been given when they had come on board earlier that evening.

"I'm starting to think that I had better have Hank have a long talk with his brother about his relationship with Alicia," Chloe huffed.

"I believe the last time I made a suggestion like that it was about Oliver and my sister, at which time you told me not to stick my nose into their relationship," Clark said with a playful tone in his voice at the memory. "It's a good thing I listened to you for once. So, I'm suggesting the same thing to you. Let them make their own decisions, they are adults after all."

"That's what I love about you, Clark. You're always there to support me when I really need it," Chloe snarked back at him which caused Tess to grin in amusement as she watched the two friends needle each other.

"I think you are right, Chloe," Tess said as she stood up. "Tomorrow is going to be a long day, and I really do need to get some rest."

"In that case I'll see you in the morning. Goodnight, Tess," Chloe said as turned started to make her way to her cabin.

"Goodnight, Chloe," Tess and Clark said together.

Then, just before she left the lounge area, Chloe called back without even turning around, "Clark, don't stay up too long."

She felt she should say it even though she knew he was probably not going to follow her advice. Unlike the rest of them, Clark was the only one who really didn't need to get any sleep. Five seconds after the sun came up Clark would be more than ready to go.

Back in the lounge, Tess and Clark stood looking each other in silence for a few moments. It was Tess that finally said something once she was assured that they were truly alone.

"Clark, I want to thank you for everything that you have done for me today," Tess began. "If it had not been for you and your friends, there is a good chance that I would probably be dead by now."

Then before Clark could respond, Tess gave into a desire that had been building inside of her all day. Quickly stepping up to Clark, Tess gathered the tie he was wearing into her hand and gently pulled his head down towards hers. Tess' original intent had been to not only give Clark a gentle kiss of thanks, but to find out for herself if the strength of the emotions that had been building in her since the moment she had met him were just as strong for Clark himself.

She had her answer the moment their lips met. To Tess it felt like little flashes electricity were suddenly shooting throughout her body causing her toes to a curl and a warm glow to begin in more than one place inside of her all at the same time. For Clark, in an instant the blood circulating within him felt as though it had been changed to liquid-fire. It was a feeling that neither of them had ever felt before and it turned a light, tentative kiss into one driven by an urgency and hunger that would not be denied any longer.

When Clark opened his mouth a little and let his tongue probe gently at Tess' lips she instantly opened her mouth as well allowing the two of them to be joined a bit more intimately than the simple pressing of their lips against each other. With each passing moment as their tongues began to plunder each other's mouths, the intensity of the passions flowing through them continued to increase and was soon reaching a breaking point for both of them.

It was only when Tess' body was telling her that it needed oxygen that she forced herself to part from Clark's lips. As she leaned back and began taking deep breathes, Tess slowly opened her eyes only to find herself looking directly into Clark's eyes that were so full of the passion and desire that he had for her that she felt her knees get even weaker than they were already feeling.

"Clark, what is happening to us," Tess asked in husky voice as she tried desperately to regain control of her emotions before she threw this man she barely knew down on the ground and ravished him like there was no tomorrow.

Clark had some idea what the truth was behind what had just happened, but it couldn't tell her that without revealing everything about himself. It was evident to him that moment was going to be coming far quicker than even he had imagined, but that time was not now. So Clark decided to side-step the issue for the moment.

"Tess, I'm attracted to you like I have never been attracted to anyone else before in my life."

"The same goes for me," Tess replied.

"For now, it might be best if you went and got some sleep before this whole thing between us gets completely out of hand and takes us places we might not be ready go to just yet. Even though it's clear that there is a part in of both of us that wants very badly to," Clark said using every ounce of willpower to keep himself from giving into his baser desires.

Tess had never heard truer words spoken. "You're right, Clark," she said in agreement. "At some point we need to really talk about this, but for now goodnight."

And with that, Tess turned and quickly departed for her cabin, not trusting herself to even give Clark a goodnight kiss, leaving a somewhat befuddled Clark alone with his thoughts.


	7. Secrets and Suspicious Minds Chapter 7

**Chapter 7**

**November 18, 1947**

**Metro-Star Express**

**About 60 miles west of Keystone City**

Sleep was proving to be a most elusive subject for Tess Mercier a little after two o'clock in the morning. The cause of her restlessness was Clark Kent. For the better part of two hours she had tried to get to sleep but her heart and her head refused to listen. Her heart was scolding her for not following through on what it had been trying to tell her all day; she was in love with Clark Kent. Yet, her head was reminding her to be the calm, logical scientist that she was. It knew that there was no such thing as "love at first sight". That was simple non-sense from fairy tales and other fiction that she had put behind herself a long time ago. Or, at least it had seemed so until today.

On an instinctive level, Tess accepted and acknowledged that she was undeniably and very strongly attracted to Clark. There was something about him that made her trust him, as well as making her feel safe whenever she was with him. But, that was part of the problem. Tess had tried so hard to maintain herself as an independent woman who needed no one to be able to stand on her own two feet. Now, in less than day, in fact in a single moment, she had met someone who was ruining all her plans and preconceptions about her life. She might not even conceive of the notion of giving up her career to settle down with someone and start a family. She realized that some of things would eventually come her way, but she refused to think that she would ever be willing to walk away from everything she had achieved simply for one man.

The galling thing was the fact that she knew next to nothing about Clark Kent other than what she had known as a child to go along with what she had learned earlier the day before. That was when the thought occurred to her that if she knew more about who he really was and what made him that way, then perhaps she could begin to figure out exactly why she was reacting the way she was when it came to the matter of Clark Kent, and hopefully come up with some idea of how to deal with it.

With that decided, Tess decided she would try a nightcap in hopes that would help her sleep. After pulling on the black silk and lace dressing gown over the matching nightgown that she had worn to bed, Tess opened the door of her cabin and stepped out into the hall. As she closed her door she could hear the distinct sound of a typewriter coming from the lounge. For a moment Tess hesitated from going down to the lounge worried that she might find Clark there and that was a situation she wasn't quite ready to deal with. Then gathering her resolve not to let fear of anything dictate her life, Tess proceeded down the hall and stepped into the lounge only to find, much to her relief, that it was Chloe banging away on her portable typewriter that she took with her whenever she traveled anywhere. Obviously, Clark had turned in as well, but that didn't explain why Chloe wasn't in bed getting some much needed rest.

Somehow sensing the presence of the other woman, Chloe briefly looked up and greeted her, "Good morning, Tess. Obviously you're having problems sleeping. Can I get you something?" she asked as she looked in the direction of the lounge's bar.

Looking in the same direction that Chloe had glanced at, Tess saw two of the stainless steel serving pots sitting on the warmer located on the bar; both of them had steam rising from them.

"I can offer you your choice of coffee or hot cocoa," Chloe continued. "Or do you want something stronger?"

At the mention of the hot cocoa, Tess immediately changed her mind about what it was she wanted to drink. "I think I'll try some of the cocoa," Tess replied as she moved to the bar and poured herself a cup. When she put the cup to her lips and took a tentative sip she was surprised that it wasn't as scalding hot as she expected it to be. In fact it was the perfect temperature for drinking, as well as the best cup of cocoa she had drunk in more years than she cared to think about.

"Mmmm," Tess sighed as she instantly felt a little better and somewhat more relaxed. "That is one of the best cups of cocoa I've ever had. I'll have to be sure to ask the train staff how they did it."

"They would be a little hard pressed to come up with that," Chloe said as she reviewed whatever it was she had been typing. "I made that from my mom's own recipe, which took her some time to get just right."

"Well, her efforts have been rewarded," Tess with a smile as she thought about cups of hot cocoa and her own mother. Those thoughts led her to utter her next words. "This is the first cup of cocoa I've had since my mother was killed during the war."

"I'm sorry," Chloe said as she looked at the younger woman with sympathy in her eyes as well as her words. "I remember the letter that Lex wrote to me telling me about his aunt being killed by a bomb dropped by an off course British bomber in 1942. I was saddened by her death. Even as a child I remember how kind and gentle your mother was. She was one of the best women it was my pleasure to know."

"Thank you, Chloe," Tess simply said in acknowledgment of her sentiments for her mother.

"But that isn't what has you up at this ridiculous hour, now is it?" Chloe asked as she set aside the pages she was reviewing so she could concentrate on Tess and whatever it is that is bothering her, even though she already has a good idea what it is.

"No it isn't. But what is your excuse for being out here?" Tess said as she looked thoughtfully into her cup.

"I'm just getting a head start on my article covering my trip on the Express," Chloe answered. "My editor, Perry White, is going to want this as soon as possible after we arrive in Starling City. So, I'm getting as much of it written before we get there. But, you didn't answer my question. What is bothering you, Tess? Would it be a tall, dark, and handsome individual we both know, and who you happen to be in love with?"

"Yes," Tess responded without even thinking about her answer before she had said it. As what she had admitted to sank in, a slow flush of embarrassment began to spread to first Tess' cheeks and then the rest of her face. "How did you know?"

"I don't want to toot my own horn, but I am very good at my job, which means I can be very observant when called for," Chloe stated as she reached for her own cup of coffee and took a sip before she continued, "Also, I've been around the block more than a few times with Clark where his relationships are concerned. You had all the signs of being attracted to him, Tess, which is something that happens to him more times than I care to think about."

"From the sound of that, Clark must have a whole harem of girlfriends," Tess said a bit petulantly as she seemed ready to start pouting about man she barely knew anything about.

Chloe smiled at Tess' reaction to that as she told her, "On the surface of things you would think that. Yet the truth is that Clark has only had one really serious relationship his entire life."

"_At least until now,"_ Chloe thought to herself.

"Chloe," Tess began in a hesitant voice, "was that relationship you mentioned with you by any chance?"

"No," Chloe said with a smile and chuckle. "Thank God, it wasn't me. That is something me and Clark will never be to each other."

"You mean there was never a time when you had hoped that Clark and you might have gotten together," Tess asked Chloe.

"Yes, I'll admit there was a time when I had hoped that Clark would be able to love me as much as I thought I loved him," Chloe admitted as her voice took on a nostalgic tone to it. "But that was when we were both just kids and I simply had a crush on him. And like most crushes it came to an end when reality set in."

"So, you and Clark never tried to have any sort of relationship other than being friends?"

"We did briefly give it a try at the start of our freshman year of high school. We went out on a few dates before the whole thing came to a screeching halt at the Homecoming Dance a couple of months later," Chloe replied. "Like I said, that was when reality set in."

"What happened?" an intrigued Tess asked.

"Towards the end of the night, Clark finally worked up enough courage to kiss me while we were out on the dance floor," Chloe told her as she started to smile at the memory. "Well, when he did kiss me there was absolutely no reaction, no spark whatsoever, like there should have been. Like I told Clark at the time, it was like I was kissing my brother. That was when we decided to just remain the friends we had always been. And that is decision I have never regretted, Tess."

"_And there was good reason for it, even though we didn't know it at time,"_ Chloe mentally reminded herself.

Tess was smiling by the time Chloe had finished her story her cocoa seemed to working magic in helping her relax enough to start talking to Chloe about what had been bothering her.

"Well, if it wasn't you, who was it then?" Tess inquired; unable to help herself wanting to know just who it was that had been the only one Clark had ever been serious about.

"It was someone that Clark met during our senior year at Metropolis University," Chloe replied. "Her name was Lori Lemaris. She was a foreign student who left the day before we graduated even though Clark had proposed to her."

"Why didn't she want to marry Clark?" a confused Tess asked. There were two things that baffled her, why someone wouldn't want to marry Clark, and the fact that the young woman's name sounded familiar for some reason. "Didn't she love him?"

"Oh, there was no denying the love the two of them had for each other. But, she had family obligations back home that she wouldn't, or couldn't, give up; even for Clark. So, that was why she turned down his proposal," Chloe said trying very carefully to tell Tess the truth without trapping herself into revealing too much of the truth. In an effort to change the subject, she asked, "You've really got it bad for him, don't you?"

"That's the part I'm having trouble understanding and accepting, Chloe," Tess confessed. "There is just no such thing as love at first sight!"

Chloe's chuckle at her statement caught Tess by surprise.

"What is so humorous about that?" Tess asked a little put out that someone she considered to be a friend was laughing at her.

"Tess," Chloe began to explain. "Something I learned from my mother, and have seen for myself, is the fact that the lucky few that it does happen to always seem to have the hardest time accepting they have found that one person meant for them. I'll admit that it doesn't happen to everyone. For the majority of the people in the world they have to be content to find someone that they feel a bond or connection to and settle only for that. And, most of them have a perfectly happy life with each other. And if had not been for one thing that might have been true for Clark and Lori if she had accepted his proposal, but in the end I know that it wouldn't have lasted."

"What makes you so convinced that would have happened," Tess asked.

"Tess, like I said before, I've seen Clark through every relationship that he has been involved in. Being able to look back on everything he went through, I now know that there was always that one little thing missing that would have made things perfect for him; that thing was you. Tess, you and Clark are a perfect fit for each other, and always have been since the first moment the two of you saw each other."

Seeing the disbelief in Tess' eyes, Chloe continued with her explanation.

"In high school, when Clark was the quarterback for our football team, he dated the head cheerleader, Catherine Grant. They dated each other for two years and everyone, including myself at the time, figured that they were going to get married sometime after graduation. But Clark never felt strongly enough about "Cat" to take the next step in their relationship. After Clark left for Met U, Cat and her family moved to Portland where her dad went into business with his brother.

"And with Lori, I knew that Clark was in love with her, but I always kept getting this feeling that there was something not right about the whole relationship. I tried talking to Clark about it and that caused one of the biggest arguments we ever had with each other. I realized that Clark was convinced that he was in love with her and I only wanted him to be happy. So, I made peace with the situation and we got past it, thankfully."

"Chloe, are you trying to tell me that Clark was never going to have a successful relationship simply because we met as children, and somehow formed a bond that links us together for the rest of our lives?" Tess said.

"I'm not trying, Tess, that is exactly what I am telling you," Chloe stated indefatigably before launching onto another line of thought. "Answer me this Tess, like any woman your age who is as attractive as you are, I'm sure that you have been involved in at least one relationship?"

"Yes."

"More than one?"

"Yes," Tess admitted.

"At anytime during those relationships, did you ever once truly feel like you had found the love of your life, that one person who seemed to fulfill you and make you feel whole?" Chloe asked.

Seeing that her cup of cocoa was empty, Tess stood up and went to refill her cup while pondering what Chloe had asked her. As she took a sip, thought very carefully about Chloe's question and reflected back on all the men she had ever been involved with, Tess couldn't help but come to the inescapable conclusion of, "No."

"In the few hours that you have been with Clark have you felt safer and more at peace with the world?" Chloe inquired as she attempted to drive home her point.

Tess' memory couldn't help but flash back to moment when she had looked into Clark's eyes earlier that morning and not recall the warm and secure feeling it gave her.

"Yes, I have. That is something I haven't felt since before my mother died," Tess realized; finally admitting the truth to herself.

"I think that you have given yourself the answer that you were looking for," Chloe told Tess.

"Did the same thing happen to you when you met Hank?" Tess asked wanting something else that she might cling to that would bolster her confidence in what Chloe had made her realize.

"Yes, as a matter of fact, it did," Chloe assured her. "It was our freshman year at Metropolis University. Clark had gotten an athletic scholarship to the school to play football, and on the first day of practice I stopped by to watch Clark work out. Hank, who came from the part of Metropolis known as Suicide Slums, had also won an athletic scholarship to play football and was on the team with Clark. I saw him and Clark talking together on the sidelines and when he introduced us to each other after practice was over I fell instantly love with him. It took Hank a little while to admit it to himself, but it all worked out in the end."

Tess sat there quietly for a moment taking in what Chloe had just told her. As she contemplated her words, Chloe was watching her carefully. Feeling that it could do nothing but help, Chloe decided to tell Tess something else that might help her where Clark was concerned.

"Tess, I am going to tell you something else that I think I will help you. Clark's parents were the same way as well when they met in college. According to what Martha has told me that with just one look she knew that Jonathan Kent was the man that she wanted to share her life with. Just like Hank, it took a while for Martha to get Jonathan to realize it. For two weeks she kept asking to borrow his notes from the economics class they had together before he finally worked enough courage to ask her out. After that nature just took its course. So, just to you give fair warning, you might have to be the one that pushes Clark into seeing what is right in front of him."

"Not if that kiss was any indication," Tess mumbled out loud.

"What kiss?" Chloe quickly asked when heard what Tess had said.

The suddenness of Chloe's question put Tess off balance for a moment, but she soon recovered enough to tell her what had happened after the two of them had been left alone after the others had gone off to bed.

After hearing what Tess had to tell her, Chloe knew exactly what it was that she needed to say to her newest friend.

"Tess, if there is one thing I have learned about Clark and every male member of the Kent Clan, it is the fact that they are hard-headed and stubborn in equal proportions," Chloe began knowing just how true that was since her father no different than any other male member of his family. "Clark may realize that he has some very strong feelings for you, but knowing him the way I do he is going to do everything he can to keep from doing something rash that both of you might 'regret' later."

"Those were just about the same words that he used," Tess said confirming what Chloe suspected.

"Figures," Chloe mumbled, knowing her cousin just a little too well, before continuing. "Listen Tess, whatever happens, when you feel the time is right do not, I repeat, do not let Clark's fears stop the two of you experiencing something miraculous. You're just going to have to trust me on this; I know that the two of you were meant for each other."

Chloe's words rang with a truth that touched Tess' heart, but her head still would not let go of everything that was causing the dilemma she had regarding Clark. Until she was able to reconcile her heart and her head she knew she would never be able to believe deep within her soul.

"Chloe, what you have told me has me starting to believe that it just might be possible, but why did it happen today instead of earlier? Shouldn't I have realized that Clark was the one meant for me?"

"Tess, in the last 19 years, how often have you thought about Clark?"

"From time to time, I guess."

"The answer is really very simple, both of you had to grow up and experience what life had to offer before either one of you were ready to know the truth of what it is that is happening to you," Chloe pointed out.

"Okay, I'll give that I maybe in love with Clark, and I know from everything I've seen him do today that he is basically a good man; one worthy of my admiration," Tess told Chloe. "But, I still really don't know all that much about him. I feel that if you were able to tell me about him and what he has been up to since we were children, then I might be able to understand him a little better. And…"

"And, if you know something about a problem confronting you, then you feel you might be able to find a way to deal with it," Chloe finished for Tess after picking up on her line of logic.

"Yes," Tess agreed, "that was what I had been thinking. Chloe, will you tell what you know about Clark?"

"_Oh this is going to take some real fancy footwork,"_ Chloe thought herself since she was the only one outside certain Kent family members knew who as much as there was to know about Clark Kent. After thinking about it for a moment, Chloe thought that it might be possible that she knew more about Clark than even his immediate family.

After taking another moment to think about it, Chloe told Tess, "I'll tell you what you might call the semi-official story of Clark Kent and his family."

"Why only 'semi-official'," Tess asked.

"Tess, wouldn't you say that everyone, and I mean everyone, has parts of their lives that they don't share easily with anyone," Chloe responded with her on question to make her friend understand where she was coming from.

"Yes," Tess replied acknowledging the truth of Chloe's statement; everyone had secrets that they kept, and that included herself.

"Okay, so you will understand when I say that I know a lot of things about Clark, and it's not my place to tell them to you. It would only be appropriate for him to be the one to tell you himself when he is ready," Chloe told her. "As long as you understand that, then I'll try to do my best to tell you what I can."

"I understand, Chloe," Tess said.

"Okay, I'll start by asking you what you remember about Clark and his family," Chloe asked.

"Well, let me think," Tess replied as quickly dredged up her memories from her days in Smallville. "The Kent family was one of the largest families in Smallville. Clark's father, Jonathan, was the mayor when we left Smallville. He was also supposed to have been some kind of hero during the First World War. His mother, Martha, was a local artist and he had one younger sister whose name was Linda; and I only recently learned that she went on to become Lady Blackhawk. I am still hoping to get some sort of explanation about that and the fact that she is married to Oliver Queen."

"Don't worry, I'll get to Linda Evelyn Kent Queen in a moment," Chloe promised. "You are correct in saying that the Kent family is one of the largest in Smallville. It just might be possible that they are one of the most extensive families in the whole state of Kansas. I was at the Kent's Thanksgiving reunion last year and there were more than two hundred uncles, aunts and cousins that showed up, and that wasn't everyone that could have been there.

"Starting with Clark's father, Jonathan Kent was a highly decorated pilot that served first with the French in the Lafayette Escadrille, and later with the American Army Air Corps once they got in the war. After the war, he started one of the first crop dusting services in the country, as well as seeing to running his own farm trying new crop-raising and irrigation techniques. It was in the mid-20s that he was talked into running for mayor, and since then his political career hasn't faltered. He is now serving his second term as a U.S. Senator in Washington.

"Tess, do you remember drought that hit the mid-West during the Depression that resulted in what was called the "Dust Bowl"?"

"I do remember reading about it," Tess admitted.

"Well, those new crop-raising and irrigation techniques I mentioned were used by all of the Kent and the Ross families and allowed them to weather that whole disaster with only minimal losses. When things finally began to improve, the Kent and Ross families were in a position to buy up a lot of the abandoned and bankrupt farms around Smallville. By that time Jonathan was serving as a state senator, so when our local congressman died suddenly our governor at the time selected Jonathan to serve out the rest of his term. It had been Jonathan's foresight about farming and legislation that he had fought for in the state senate that made him best person for the job. That was how Clark's father stepped onto the national political stage. Jonathan finished out his appointed term and then was elected to another. In 1938 he ran for the open Senate seat and won; he was re-elected in 1944 to his second and current term as the junior Senator from Kansas.

"Now, Martha comes from the Clarks of Metropolis; one of the oldest and most prestigious families of the city. She was an art student at Metropolis University and that was where she met Jonathan and fell in love with him. Like Clark, Jonathan had received a scholarship to play for the school's football team, the Bulldogs. Her decision to marry Jonathan really upset her parents, at least at the time it did. That breach began to heal itself when Jonathan's accomplishments during the war and in business after that proved to Martha's parents that their son-in-law was not just a simple farmer's son who had stolen their daughter from them. After Linda was born, Martha began slowly get back into doing her art. In the last fifteen years she has become one the most celebrated artists in the country."

"That's why a couple of those paintings in Clark's office looked familiar," Tess said. "Now that I know that, I remember my parents had some of her paintings in their collection."

"Martha has also provided all of the artwork whenever it was used in any of Clark's stories or for the covers of his books," Chloe added. "Now, we come to Linda. Linda was something of a miracle. You see Tess, at one time Martha was told that she would never be able to bear children. That was why that when they found Clark abandoned in one of their fields in 1915 they adopted him."

Seeing the look of surprise on Tess' face, Chloe concluded, "I take it that you didn't know that Clark was adopted, did you?"

"No, I never heard anything about Clark being adopted," Tess confessed.

"Not too surprising, members of the Kent clan can be very protective of its members," Chloe explained. "They never made a secret about it, but they also never really talk about it, either. As far as anyone in the family is concerned, Clark is just as much a member of the family as any of them that were born into it. Tess, just so you know, Clark is not the first person to be adopted into the family. There have been quite a few relatives that have been made part of the Kent family down through the years."

"Does Clark know who his real parents are and what happened to them," Tess asked.

"_Okay, this is definitely one of those areas I have got to be careful about,"_ Chloe thought to herself.

"Yes," Chloe began as she chose her words carefully, "he does. He learned everything about them only a few months ago. But you are going to have to wait until Clark tells you about them himself."

"I take it that this is one of those areas that you can't tell me about," Tess concluded.

"I'm afraid so, Tess," Chloe replied. "This is unquestionably one of those things that Clark has to tell you about, not me. And Tess, you needn't worry about it. I'm sure that is something that he will do sometime in the very near future."

"Alright," Tess agreed. "You were telling me about his sister."

"Yeah," Chloe said as she started back in with her story. "Like I said, because of Martha's condition the news of her becoming pregnant was seen as something of a miracle. The doctors still to this day don't know how it happened."

"_Even though she has never admitted it to me, I still suspect that my mother had something to with that 'miracle',"_ Chloe mentally reminded herself. _"That wouldn't be that surprising since Martha became pregnant with Linda less than three months after we arrived in Smallville. Anything for family, right?"_

"When Linda was growing up she was the personification of the word 'tomboy'. She went nearly everywhere with me, Clark, and Pete, and would've gotten into far more trouble if her brother had not been there to bail her out of it. Sometimes I think she did it just to see what Clark would do.

"Like her father, Linda was drawn to flying. She learned to fly when she was only ten, which was even earlier than Clark did it. Like both her parents she was very smart; in some ways even smarter. She graduated from high school at the age of sixteen and earned a doctorate from the Metropolis Institute of Technology in aeronautical engineering by the time she was twenty. She had barely started working for an aircraft company owned by Luthor Enterprises when the war started. Eager to do her part during the war like father had done before and her brother was doing at the time in China, Linda decided she would become the first female member of the famed Blackhawk Squadron. Linda sharpened her piloting and combat skills before joining the Blackhawks under the name of Linda Blake; Blake was her maternal grandmother's maiden name. Despite their rules forbidding female members, after Linda had saved them a number of times, from threats like the Scavenger, they made her an honorary member, and she adopted the name Lady Blackhawk.

"In late 1942, while working with the Blackhawks to develop their next generation of aircraft, she met an old friend of her brother, Oliver Queen. Once they met and began working on what they called "The Flying Flapjack" it wasn't long before they discovered that they were in love with each other. They were married three months later in early 1943. It was shortly after that when the Nazis finally discovered the location of Blackhawk Island and attacked it with a chemical weapon launched from a U-boat killing nearly everyone on the island. Of the original Blackhawk members the only one to survive the attack was Weng Chan.

"It was after that the Seven Soldiers of Victory were formed specifically to keep such an occurrence from happening on American or British soil. Of course, there was no way that Linda and Weng Chan were going to be left out of that. If there was one thing they wanted it was to get some payback on those responsible for killing their friends. Linda was part of the Seven Soldiers until late 1944, which was when she discovered that she was pregnant. Linda spent the last part of the war working for at Queen Industries aircraft division as a designer and project manager. Nine months later Linda gave birth to her and Oliver's son Conner Roy Queen, on August 10, 1945.

"Now, getting back to Clark," Chloe stated. "In school, he was always one of the top students. He worked with me on our school newspaper, the Torch. He was also one the school's top athletes. He, Pete Ross and his cousin, Whitney Fordman, led our baseball and football teams to the state championships every year; winning two championships in football and one in baseball.

"Because of what he had done on the football and baseball teams, Clark received a full athletic scholarship to Metropolis University where he was a member of the school's football and baseball teams while he majored in journalism and physics. Clark also participated in the university's ROTC program and obtained a reserve commission in the Navy. And, it was at Met U that Clark met and became friends with Lex, Oliver, and Hank. All them played on the same teams and became friends.

"Upon graduating, Clark applied for active duty within the Navy and was accepted due to his grades, but also due to the fact that by now Jonathan Kent was a U.S. congressman representing the state of Kansas. Because of his father's position within the government, Clark was assigned to be a naval aviator with the Marine Corps and was trained at Pensacola, FL in 1938-39. After serving aboard the U.S.S. Enterprise for more than a year, Clark was assigned to flight instructor duty at Pensacola in early 1941.

"Six months later, Clark was recruited by a representative of the Central Aircraft Manufacturing Company (CAMCO) which was later called the American Volunteer Group (AVG), or even better known as the Flying Tigers. That representative had been Oliver Queen who was looking for pilots to man the squadron that Claire Chennault himself had promised him he could have if he could find enough men for it.

"Oliver's sales pitch was so good that Clark resigned his commission as a 1st Lieutenant in the Marine Corps in August 1941, and by the time they celebrated Clark's twenty-sixth birthday the two them were doing it Rangoon, Burma. It was during his birthday party that Major Oliver Queen, who was now Clark's commanding officer, announced to all of their squadron mates Clark's promotion to captain. For the next eight months Clark served as Oliver Queen's executive officer of the AVG's 4th Pursuit Squadron that was known to its members as "The Royal Order of the Queen's Knights"; or more simply to everyone else as "Queen's Knights". During his time with the Flying Tigers Clark was credited with 11 confirmed aerial victories and even made the cover of Life magazine.

"When the AVG was disbanded in July of 1942, Clark opted to return to the states and seek reassignment with the Navy. When Clark reported in to the Navy Department was given the chance to volunteer for special duty with the Office of Strategic Services, and spend the rest of the war doing things that he hasn't spoken much of even with the war being over for two years now.

"But he did tell me about one them," Chloe told Tess suddenly remembering it. "It was his first mission for the OSS and it actually involved someone in your family, Tess."

That bit of news surprised and confused Tess, as she asked, "What do you mean?"

"You do know that Lex was one of the pilots that were part of Doolittle's Raid on Tokyo," Chloe asked.

"Yes, I remember the letter Uncle Lionel sent to us telling us about that. He was exceptionally proud of what Lex had done," Tess said recalling how animated her uncle's letter had been when he told her and her father about it. "Lex was the only pilot who didn't lose his plane because he landed it in Vladivostok."

"Which he did in violation of his orders not to land in the Soviet Union," Chloe informed her. "I got that bit of the story from Clark who got it from Lex himself. Truth of the matter was that Lex started having minor mechanical problems shortly after his plane had left the Hornet that caused him to use up his fuel at a faster rate and cut down on his range. By the time they dropped their bombs, Lex's navigator had calculated that they were not going to have enough fuel to make it to China. So, not wanting to land somewhere that would put his crew at risk, Lex opted to head for the only safe place he knew they could reach, which was Vladivostok. When he arrived he and his crew were interned by the Russians since they were not at war with Japan at that time."

"Uncle Lionel's letter mentioned that and that he had tried nearly everyone he knew in Washington to put pressure on Russians to let his son and his crew go. He said that there was one last person he thought he could turn to for help," Tess told Chloe. "He never said who that person was, but whoever it was it worked because less than two months later Lex and his crew walked into the Chiang Kai-shek's headquarters in Chungking."

"That person was the junior Senator from Kansas, who past the request along to his son."

"So, it was Clark that got Lex and his crew out," a dumbfounded Tess surmised.

"Like I said, it was Clark's first mission for the OSS. All he was supposed to do was go in and ascertain exactly where Lex and his crew were, and what sort of condition they were in. He had accomplished that when he got word that they were going to be moving Lex and his men to another location deeper inside the Soviet Union, which meant they were not intending on letting them go anytime soon. Well, Clark being Clark, he wasn't going to let that happen to his friend. So, Clark decided to take action, which meant that he disguised himself as the NKVD colonel sent by Moscow to take charge. Well that started a two month odyssey across the Soviet Union, Mongolia, and into northern China before ending, as you said, in Chungking."

"I never heard any of the details of what had happened. I was just glad that Lex was alive and well," Tess said.

"All of us were," Chloe added before remembering. _"That was also how Lex found out the truth about Clark."_

"But it did cause some feathers to be ruffled," Chloe commented. When one of Tess' eyebrows rose in curiosity, Chloe explained, "The Russian were not happy that the OSS had sent an agent into their country to retrieve Lex and his crew and started to file an official protest over the whole matter. At least they were until Clark brought to light certain information regarding Soviet agents that were working here in the United States. With pressure from Jonathan and some other lawmakers, Roosevelt smoothed things over and the whole matter was dropped."

"That is something else I never heard about," Tess told Chloe.

"Not too many people have," Chloe conceded. "Now getting back to Clark, like everyone who fought in it, the war left its mark on him. The brutality of the Japanese towards the Chinese, and what he saw later, disgusted Clark. While he would never intentionally seek the death of those causing the destruction and death, he was now far less concerned about the fate that befell them as a cause of his actions. As always, his main goal has been to protect the innocent.

"With the war over, Clark mustered out of the Navy and the OSS with the rank of major. After that he returned to Metropolis to continue with something he had been doing since his senior year in high school; writing fiction and selling the stories and books to various publishing houses across the country. Clark had kept up his writing all through the war, and by the time it was over, he written over two hundred short stories and articles for a wide variety of genres of fiction and non-fiction under a series of different pseudonyms.

"Several of his articles I was able to get published in the Daily Planet. It was because my Chief Editor liked them so much that I tried to convince Clark to come to work with me at the Daily Planet just like we had done on our high school newspaper, the Smallville Torch. But Clark politely turned me down. He had something else in mind.

"Clark has written more than a dozen novels, and while they will probably never be compared Tolstoy or Fitzgerald, they have been very popular. That fact is borne out since Hollywood has bought the movie rights to nearly every one of them so they can be turned into movies. It was this fact that many of his books and short stories were detective stories that made Clark decide to his private detective license and open his own detective agency. That would allow him the freedom to continue his writing and be able to help other people who couldn't help themselves. And in the last two years Clark has become known as the best private detective in Metropolis by solving cases and performing services that no one else could or would, so long as it was never illegal.

"And that is pretty much it in a nutshell as to what Clark has been up to since you last saw him, Tess," Chloe said before quickly adding, "At least what I can tell you. I hope that helped some."

"Yes, I believe it did," Tess said before she suddenly couldn't resist the urge to yawn.

"I would say that shows that you're ready to try again to get some sleep," Chloe stated with a smile knowing that her words and her mother's cocoa were going to help the young woman sort things out for herself once she got some sleep.

"I have to agree with you," Tess replied as she stood up and walked towards the bar to leave her empty cup there. "I think I'll be able to sleep now. Thank you, Chloe, good night"

"You're welcome, Tess, and good night," Chloe returned to her work and Tess headed back to her cabin.

Tess was still a little concerned about the contract that Vincent Edge had put on her. But there was nothing she could do about at the moment so she filed it away in the back of her mind to deal with it at another time.

She really didn't have to worry too much about it because Chloe had already called in a couple of experts who specialized in dealing with the sort of bums that made up Intergang.

**Chicago, Illinois**

**Top floor of the Metropole Hotel**

At a little past four o'clock in the morning it was not surprising that the two thugs of Hugo Mannheim were more than a bit drowsy as they stood guard outside the door of the suite of rooms where their boss always kept his latest mistress. The single, muted ding of the elevator bell was barely enough to snap them back to complete alertness as the elevator doors began to slide open, but no one step out. Instead, an eerie, smoke-like fog filled the elevator and began to quickly spread throughout the hallway.

Upon seeing what was pouring out through the elevator doors, the older of the two thugs began to breakout into a cold sweat even as Al Hogan murmured to himself, "No, it can't be him. He ain't been seen since the war started; not since he killed old "Boss" Mannheim."

"What the Hell you talkin' about, Al," Eddie Castellanos asked in a nervous, quavering voice as the fog quickly closed in around them cutting their visibility to only a few feet. Eddie's quickly mounting panic was caused by what was happening and the fact that it was making his older partner, who had never shown any hint of emotion – especially fear – in the three years that he had known him, react the way that he was.

Before Al has a chance to answer Eddie's question a grim, mirthless laughter began to reach their ears. Within the surrounding fog, it sounds as though it is coming from different places that are constantly shifting. After a few moments the laughter begins to change in pitch and tone as takes on a more maniacal, cackling quality that only furthers unnerve the two Intergang thugs.

As suddenly as it had started the haunting sound ceases, leaving the two men quivering so bad in fear that neither has thought to draw their weapons, and still don't move even as two figures begin to emerge from out the foggy smoke. The taller of the two was a man dressed in a black suit, a black floppy slouch hat, a long red scarf that covers the lower part of his face, and a black cloak that is lined in red that somehow is billowing out as if blown by a breeze that doesn't exist in the windless hallway. What little of his face that is exposed appears to be sinister and gaunt, with an aquiline nose sticking out above the red scarf and fierce, blazing eyes that bores into the souls of the men in front of him.

The other figure standing close to the first was a bit smaller and slighter in stature while the clothes it was wearing left no doubt that it was a female. The woman appeared to be in her mid-to-late twenties with wavy black hair that fell halfway down her back and looked out at the world through a pair penetrating jade green eyes. She was wearing a figure clinging, blood-red dress whose skirt hung down to just past knees and had a slit on each side that reached halfway up her legs allowing her a goodly amount of freedom for her legs. The pair of blood-red high heels on her feet added enough to her height to make her taller than the two trembling men standing in front of her, which only added to the feeling of intimidation that Al and Eddie were experiencing.

"Well, well, well," the man said in a haunting voice that seemed to call from beyond the grave, "Allen 'the Shive' Hogan and Eddie Castellanos. Fate has finally brought the two you to face the justice you both deserve. Between the two you, more than fifty people have died; many of whom were innocent victims of your crimes. For both of you time has run out," the man growls menacingly as the intensity of his glare at both of them increases for a moment.

At first nothing seems to happen, then both of them notice an odor as been added to surrounding smoke; a bitter, almond-like smell. Al is the first recognize it as he screamed out, "Cyanide!"

Both men began gasping for air and quickly went into convulsions. In a matter of moments the two men lay dead were they had both been sleeping in their chairs on either side of the doorway they had been guarding in a hallway that was perfectly clear of any kind of smoke or fog. Neither one of them had uttered a sound.

As the man and the woman stood over the two prostrate figures sitting, the woman turned to the man saying, "I really do wish I could learn that trick from you."

"Well darling, is not that I haven't tried to do that over the last forty years," the man replied. "This was a far more compassionate end than they ever gave their victims. Now, I think it is time that we pay that little visit to Lil' Hughie and convince him to cancel those contracts like Dr. Fate asked us to do. Are you ready, my dear?"

"When haven't I been ready for something like this, my love," Madame Xanadu said as she took her husband's hand and they began to walk towards the double doors that the recently deceased men had been guarding. As they approached the doors both of them took on an intangible quality before they began to phase through them.

Just before they passed into the other room, the man stated, "I wonder if Hughie is going to pee in his pants like he did the last time the Wraith paid him a visit?"

Not long after real screams of terror and cries for mercy were mingled with the grim, cackling laughter of the Wraith as they echoed down the hallways and into the rooms of the top floor of the Metropole Hotel.


	8. Secrets and Suspicious Minds Chapter 8

**Chapter 8**

**November 18, 1947, 5:54 A.M. (P.S.T.)**

**30 miles offshore from Long Beach, CA**

**Aboard the "E'strius"**

The captain of the E'strius stood anxiously looking at the peaceful, twinkling lights just on the horizon as the California coast slid by to starboard as his vessel glided along effortlessly above the waves. The indigo blue color of E'strius' hull made the ship nearly invisible at night and for the last ten hours the captain had been using that advantage in a race against the clock. He was trying to make up the time they had lost due to mechanical failure. Just before reaching Panama their starboard gravitronic maintenance assembly had malfunctioned, causing a system failure in the ionic particle array which had destabilized their entire propulsion system. That breakdown had resulted in them having to take their main reactors off line to allow the necessary repairs to be made.

Once the repairs had been completed and darkness had descended, the captain had decided to run above the surface in a seemingly herculean effort to recover as much of the precious time they had already lost in spite of the chance he was running on being spotted. Yet, the captain felt he had no choice but to run the risk. His superior had made it absolutely clear to him just how imperative the nature of his mission to Starling City was and that he had to arrive as soon as possible to complete his assignment before the truth of what was inside his target was discovered.

Now, with it little more than a half hour till the sun would be rising, the captain knew his advantage of being nearly invisible would soon be negated, thus necessitating that he once again slip his ship beneath the surface. It was at that moment that one of the crewmen reported multiple surface contacts 40 miles directly ahead of them just beginning to appear on the horizon.

The captain returned to his seat at the command console and engaged the forward sensors. Quickly zooming in the forward optics, the picture of a collection of small vessels soon filled the captain's personal screen at his command console. The local fishing fleet the captain surmised.

Obviously the moment of returning to their natural element had come a little sooner than the captain would have wanted, but it couldn't be helped. So the captain accepted the situation for what it was and issued the order to make all preparations to dive. For a few moments there was a different variety of sounds that filled the interior of the vessel as the crew put some systems on standby and brought others online so that they would be ready to be engaged the moment they were needed.

At the nod of the captain's head, the helmsman changed the attitude of the E'strius as he directed it into a shallow diving angle.

The rounded, crescent-shaped vessel, that appeared more like a flying-wing and spanned more than 150 feet, quickly descended from the altitude of some 200 feet that it had been cruising along at and soon made contact with the surface of the Pacific. The splash was less than one would have imagined and in a matter of moments the E'strius had disappeared from sight as though it had never existed.

Once the E'strius had leveled off at a depth of 300 feet, the captain asked the navigator for a new estimate on their time of arrival at Starling City. When he was told that they had made up most of their lost time, all except for perhaps 45 minutes, the captain could not help but smile at the news. He and his crew had done far better than he had believed possible. At this point the captain knew that it should be feasible to make up the remaining time that they had lost by running at maximum power on the ship's reactors.

After voicing his appreciation to his two officers and the other members of the his dozen man crew for their efforts, the captain ordered the E'strius put onto a new heading and the underwater drive be brought to maximum speed; they had a rendezvous with fate that they didn't want to be late for.

**Starling City Union Terminal**

**Starling City, California**

**8:22 A.M. (P.S.T.)**

"_**Now arriving on Track 29, the Metro-Star Express,"**_ the voice of the station's public address system blared out over the loudspeakers within the terminal.

Just inside the entrance to the terminal from platform #29 several hundred people were gathered. They included politicians of all sorts, every variety of media personage, local dignitaries, and the entire Starling City University Marching Band. At the very front of them, standing next to the mayor, was Oliver Queen. With him were four other people; his wife, his in-laws (Senator and Mrs. Kent), and Roy Harper, his right-hand man.

A few minutes later, as the first of the passengers entered the terminal, the SCU Marching Band began playing as reporters began interviewing the newest arrivals to Starling City about their experiences of riding on the fastest train in the world. It was more than five minutes later when the person that everyone was waiting for could be seen walking towards the terminal entrance; that person was Tess Mercier. With her were four other people. As they got closer two of them were immediately identifiable to several members of the gathered media as Lois Lane and Jimmy Olsen, which caused them to groan in frustration. It was obvious that once again the team of Lane and Olsen were going to scoop everyone else. Jimmy Olsen had his arm around the waist of the third member of their little group who was a blond woman in her early to mid-twenties with dark brown eyes. The final member of the group was a tall man in his early thirties with black hair and very alert eyes of an unusual intense blue coloring. But, what struck most of those observing the approaching group was the fact that the man had his arm around Tess Mercier's waist; just the same as Jimmy Olsen and the other blonde woman.

Naturally, the question on all of the reporters' minds was; who was this mystery man with Tess. They received their answer when the two of them approached Oliver Queen and the mayor. While Oliver was introducing Tess to the mayor of Starling City, the man was being warmly embraced by the Kents and their daughter. That made it rather easy to deduce that the mystery man was none other than the Senator's son, Clark Kent.

The reporters were not the only ones mystified by seeing Clark with his arm so intimately wrapped around Tess' waist; his family was as equally intrigued by that fact. To the best of their knowledge Clark had not shown any real interest in anyone since he had returned from the war. Clark suddenly showing up like this with someone on his arm only made that situation all the more surprising to them, to say the least. The fact that it was Lutessa Mercier only added to the mystery for them.

This sudden shift in Clark and Tess' relationship had occurred earlier that morning while Tess had been returning to her cabin. Tess had been raised to be deliberate and decisive in her approach to life; once she set her mind on something she always saw it through. Her chat with Chloe had helped her to clear away the last of her doubts about her and Clark. She accepted the fact that she was truly in love with Clark Kent despite the lack of any rational explanation of how it had happened. Having solved that problem for herself, Tess didn't even hesitate to the next step. As she came to the cabin that Clark was occupying, she stopped and gently knocked on the door.

A few moments later, after he had opened the cabin door, Clark found himself being gently kissed by Tess. It lasted for a long, pleasant moment that had caused a thrill to pass completely through him. When Tess took a half step back, Clark found himself looking into her emotion filled eyes as she simply told him 'I love you' before proceeding onto her own cabin. A bemused, and somewhat befuddled, Clark could only wordlessly watch as she opened the door to her cabin, nor could he miss the adoring gleam in her eyes that helped complete the sultry, seductive expression that graced her features as she looked back at him, and slowly closed the door.

Needless to say, Clark had not gotten much rest after that, while Tess enjoyed one of the best nights of sleep in her life.

Back in the here and now, the moment for the greeting of family members would have to wait until the confronting the media and the local dignitaries had been attended to.

Once the mayor took over introducing Tess to the other luminaries of Starling City, Oliver finally had a chance to pull Clark to the side and tell him, "I've got good news and bad news, which do you want first?"

"Give me the bad; mom never let me have dessert until I had finished my vegetables," Clark responded. He preferred to get whatever the lousy news was out of the way first, and his subtle joke got a smile from his brother-in-law in the process.

"About an hour ago we received word from Hank that Lana has disappeared from the hospital room where they had been keeping her under guard," Oliver told him.

"Did Hank have any information on how it happened," Clark inquired calmly taking the news in stride. Like Oliver, he had experienced stranger things than someone vanishing from a guarded room.

"No," Oliver replied as Roy walked up and joined them. "All he's sure of at the moment is that she was still unconscious at the last time a nurse looked in on her at about five in the morning. When they checked on her again an hour later she was simply gone. Hank personally interviewed all the officers guarding her door and had been posted outside of the building. According to what they told him, none of them saw anything unusual happen. And before you ask, they all swear that none of them were asleep at any time throughout the night, and the hospital staff backs up their claims about that."

"That leaves only two possibilities that I can come up with, neither one of which I care for," Clark surmised. "Either there is more to Lana than any of us believed, or someone currently unknown to us with special assets is responsible."

"Intergang," Oliver suggested, which had been his first thought upon hearing the news himself.

"Not likely," Clark said. "The Intergang leadership is still a little gun shy at the idea of allowing meta-humans into their organization. They might occasionally contract out a job to one, but they are too afraid of allowing any of them into any position of power, no matter how small. They are worried that they would eventually lose control of the whole operation and be replaced. Also, the last thing Intergang wants right now is to draw even more attention to themselves than Lana's antics has already done. If it really had been Intergang, we would have been more likely to have found Lana dead inside her hospital room."

"You do know that at some point that is going to start happening," Oliver told him concerning his thoughts about Intergang and meta-humans.

"Yeah," Clark agreed, "and when that happens it is going to make our jobs a lot more difficult."

"Amen to that," Roy said in agreement.

"Well, if that is the bad news, let me hear the good news."

"Roy received a call from our guy leading the search for Lex's plane about an hour ago just before we left to get here," Oliver began telling him. "They have found some of the debris from the crash; at least now we have a place to concentrate the search on."

"At what depth was the debris recovered from," Clark asked.

"Right around 300 feet," Oliver told him. "That is another reason I'm glad to see you, Clark. We had already been planning on asking you to come out and _**help**_. But since you are already here, I'm hoping that we will be able to start bringing up the wreckage by this afternoon."

"Then I guess it's a good thing I brought one of my suits with me," Clark said with a small smile knowing exactly what sort of _**help**_ Oliver had meant, and a situation like this was something that Clark had been preparing for over the last month or so. It seemed that now was going to be the time his idea and preparations were put to the test.

"I was counting on that," Oliver stated with a small laugh and a smile on his lips. "Roy's boat is tied up at a dock just a few blocks away from Queen Tower. Once we get done here, there is going to be a reception at Queen Industries. After things begin to wind down there the three of us should be able to slip away and run out there so you can have a chance to look the situation over before we decide what to do from there."

"That's sounds like as good an idea as any other," Clark agreed. "The quicker we get this whole thing wrapped up here the better. Somehow I'm starting to get the feeling that Tess and I are going to have to get back to Metropolis as soon as possible. I don't like this whole thing with Lana disappearing the way she did; it makes me think that there is a lot more going on than we are aware of. Now, let me go tell Tess what you have told me. She needs to know before she is surprised by some reporter getting the chance to ask her the wrong question at the wrong time."

"Well, Gabe and Margo called earlier to let me know that they were going to be here on this evening's Express. Between Margo and Chloe checking on things in their own unique ways, they might be able to come up with some kind of clue as to what is going on," Oliver suggested.

"They just might," Clark agreed knowing that while the combination of powers between his aunt and his cousin were truly formidable, they were still not all-powerful and all-knowing. "I'll ask Chloe to talk her mother about helping us out again."

"That reminds me," Oliver said. "Chloe's folks told me that their appointment in Chicago had been successful and that they were able to get those contracts cancelled."

Clark gave Oliver a quick nod of thanks at that additional bit of news before moving to intercept Tess who was standing behind and a little to one side of the mayor who was currently standing at a podium making some opening remarks to the collected crowd of reporters and spectators. As the mayor continued speaking, Clark bent down and quickly told Tess what Oliver had just got done telling him. Knowing that many eyes were on her, Tess made sure to maintain an impassive look upon her face as she heard Clark's news. She gave a quick little nod to let Clark know that she understood what he had told her just before the mayor called her to the podium by announcing, "And now, I am proud to introduce Lutessa Mercier, the acting head of Luthor Enterprises, who would like to say a few words on this historic occasion."

As she stepped towards the podium that was covered in microphones, Tess quickly composed herself and her thoughts on what she was about to say. Once she stood in front of the podium, Tess took a brief moment to look the crowd over before she began to speak, "Thank you Mayor Tate, and I want to thank everyone who came out this morning to get a glimpse of the future. The Metro-Star rail project is just one part of a bright future that my cousin, Oliver Queen and Bruce Wayne had envisioned together. They believed that by bringing faster means of communication and commerce to the nation, and the world, that everyone would eventually grow to understand and appreciate that every individual contributes something unique to our world that helps make it special.

"It was this belief that understanding and acceptance of the differences that make every person distinctive from each other that would one day allow a better and more peaceful world to emerge that was the driving force behind everything that Alexander Luthor strove to accomplish in his life. He had the vision to see that future, and he had the drive to turn that dream into reality. I feel that we have only just begun to see a glimpse of the potential of the ideal that he shared with Mr. Queen and Mr. Wayne. If he had lived, I can only begin to imagine the heights to which he would have helped us soar to.

"While his life may been cut so tragically short, his vision will not die with him; I am pledging my efforts and the resources of Luthor Enterprises to see that his dream is fulfilled. That includes our plans to press forward with the development of the series of aircraft like the one that was the cause of Alexander being taken from us. Now, it was not the design, nor was it any fault in the building of the aircraft, that led to the accident that brought down my cousin's plane. It was all because of the scheming plans of one despicable woman, whom Alexander was in the process of divorcing. Just yesterday afternoon, before me and other highly credible witnesses, Lana Luthor confessed not only to arranging Alexander's death, but to also being personally responsible for the deaths of my uncle, Lionel Luthor, and of her previous husband, Nicholas Burtrum.

"While her accomplices in Alexander's death are still in custody, I have just been informed that Lana Luthor has somehow escaped early this morning from the hospital where she was being kept after being knocked unconscious yesterday during her arrest."

At Tess' last comment a few smiles and a couple of chuckles broke out among the gathering of reporters since they knew just it who was that had been responsible for Lana's condition.

"While she may be free at the moment, I am convinced and fully believe that the forces of justice will see that Lana Luthor is dealt the fate that she so richly deserves," Tess stated unequivocally.

"I would like to conclude with an announcement. Just prior to our departure from Metropolis last night I received confirmation that contracts have been signed with by all the countries of Western Europe to have the Metro-Star rail system installed throughout the free countries of that continent over the next three years. This will tie all of those countries together with an integrated high-speed transportation system that will bring about a more efficient and economical means to move passengers and freight anywhere within their borders. I feel that this is a validation and a vindication of the vision that Alexander and his partners had when they began all of this four years ago.

"Thank you," Tess said again before turning from the podium and disappearing into small crowd of people waiting behind her. While it was hard to get a clear sight of her, Tess' progression through the gathering she was traversing was easy to follow by the tall figure of Clark Kent that was constantly by her side as they moved to reach the exit of the terminal and the cars waiting to take them to the Queen Industries Tower for the formal reception to celebrate the inaugural run of the Metro-Star Express.

**Aboard the "E'strius"**

**Somewhere north of San Francisco, CA**

**9:38 A. M. (P.S.T.)**

"Captain," the voice of the engineering officer could be heard by everyone on the E'strius' bridge as it issued from the speaker mounted on the captain's control panel.

"Yes, Ialnar," the captain replied.

"We need to reduce speed, Captain. The strain on the reactors is starting to take its toll," Ialnar stated.

"One moment, Ialnar," the Captain said before turning to navigator. "Ustrec, how will that affect us?"

Ustrec's fingers quickly began entering various bits of data into the console he was sitting at. A few moments later his display gave him the information that he had asked for. "We have nearly made all of our lost time, Captain," Ustrec announced. "Sir, we can reduce our speed by as much as 25% and still arrive at our destination at our originally projected time."

"Did you hear that, Ialnar?"

"Yes, Captain."

"Will reducing speed to 80% be enough of a relief for the reactors?"

"More than enough, Captain."

"Good, I would like be a little early if possible," the Captain told his engineer. Then looking at his helmsman, the Captain ordered, "Nai, reduce speed by 20% and keep us on course."

"Aye, aye, Captain," Nai barked as he turned back his console and began to carry out his orders.

**Queen Industries Tower**

**Starling City, CA**

**11:03 A.M. (P.S.T.)**

The reception at Queen Industries was just about over. The mayor and most of the dignitaries had left a few at a time during the last half hour. Tess had been circulating amongst the guests and thanking them for coming for the last hour or so. When she finally was able to take a good look around she saw that Linda Queen was doing the same thing as her. That fact only made her wonder where Oliver was at, and that thought made her aware that both Clark and Roy were also missing along with Jimmy and Alicia.

Tess had noticed that the two young lovers had disappeared from the reception sometime ago, but had not really thought much about it at that particular moment. She figured that had simply slipped away to go somewhere to be alone. She knows she would have done the same thing with Clark if she didn't have obligations to Lex and Luthor Enterprises that were making her stay and see things through at the reception.

Seeing Chloe talking with Clark's parents while standing by one of the windows of the largest conference room located on the top floor of Queen Tower that looked out over Aurora Bay, Tess began to make her way over to where they were. Tess had been pleasantly surprised by the reception she had received from the Kents. They had been very gracious and warm when they had finally gotten some time to talk about when Tess had been a child in Smallville. The fact that they seemed to remember so much about her and her parents' time in Smallville had touched her more than she had thought it would. There had been some fond memories that had been made in those years that Tess still occasionally recalled, especially on the holidays. It also didn't surprise her too much that she had gotten something akin the same feeling of warmth and security by being around Clark's parents that she got whenever she was with him.

As she approached the three of them she noticed that their attention was focused on something out in Aurora Bay. Now curious about what was holding their attention, as she came to stand next to Chloe and looked out the window with them, Tess asked, "What it is that has all of your attention?"

Jonathan pointed out into the bay and said, "Clark, Oliver and Roy are out there checking that site where they found that wreckage this morning."

"Jimmy and Alicia went with them to see if they could be of any help," Chloe added. At least now Tess knew where the two of them had gotten to along with the others.

Looking in the direction that Mr. Kent was indicating, Tess saw what appeared to a sizable boat since they could clearly see it even at a distance of about three to four miles out in the bay. Tess estimated that the craft to between 70-80 feet in length as it moved slowly back and forth across the bay in what she soon realized was a simple search pattern.

"That's Roy's boat. He calls her _**Harper's Folly**_," Linda Queen said as she joined the others at the window. "It's a converted experimental patrol that the Navy cancelled the contract for right after the war and Oliver allowed to finish for himself. He spent nearly a year refitting her with a bunch of special equipment and new engines before he put her back in the water."

After a few more minutes of following their search pattern, the boat came to a stop at a position approximately three-quarters of a mile northwest of the marker that showed the location where the wreckage had been found earlier that morning. The boat maintained its position for a couple of minutes and Tess was beginning to wonder what they were up to when she suddenly heard a high-pitched noise that was far beyond the normal hearing of any human. In fact the sound was so powerful, and happened so unexpectedly, that it caused Tess a brief moment of pain before she was able to tune it out.

Martha happened to have been looking at Tess when she first heard the noise, so she easily saw the quick flinch of pain that crossed the young woman's features. Being the concerned and kind-hearted person that she was, she asked her, "Are you alright, Tess?"

"Just a small headache," Tess replied somewhat truthfully. "I'll be fine in a moment."

"Are you sure that you are going to be okay," a still concerned Martha inquired.

"I might be a little more tired than I realized. I think I'll try and get in a nap this afternoon," Tess replied in a voice that reassured Clark's mother.

As the others turned their attention back to the view of the bay, Tess was lost in her own thoughts about the sound she had just heard. In the last two years she had heard a similar sound more than a dozen times, and every time she could tell that it was coming from somewhere in the United States, but it had never been as powerful as this time had been. She could only surmise that she must be closer to the source than she had ever been before, and that source was located out on the _**Harper's Folly**_. Also, the signal that she had just heard sounded a little different than the other signals she had previously heard. While it was using the same frequency as the others, this one must have been from a completely different source altogether.

A couple of minutes or so after that sound had ceased, a red and blue figure streaked into view of those gathered at the window and headed directly towards Roy's boat. As the person who had flown over Starling City landed on the deck of the _**Harper's Folly**_, a stunned Tess turned towards Chloe and stammered out, "Was that Superman?"

"I would have to think so," Chloe calmly replied, successfully keeping her amusement at Tess' reaction from showing on her face or being heard in her voice.

"But what is he doing here?" a still bewildered Tess asked.

"I would have to guess that either Ollie or Roy called him here to help in bringing up the remains of Lex's plane like they had talked about," Linda provided. Then still seeing the confusion on Tess' face, she continued, "During the war Superman and the boys occasionally worked together and became friends. Knowing that there would be times that they might need his help, Superman gave them each a watch that a friend of his had invented that had a signaling device in it that only he could hear from anywhere in the world. Since Lex was also a friend of Superman, they figured that he wouldn't mind giving them a hand in recovering the wreckage of Lex's plane."

"_He's not the only one who can hear it,"_ Tess thought to herself. She was also happy to finally know just what had been the source of those noises she had been occasionally hearing for the last couple of years. She was also a bit surprised by Linda's announcement that her cousin had been a friend of Superman.

She was a bit awed by the thought of him and what he had done during the war and since. The fact that Lex had known him and had never told her was something that she was having a hard time coming to terms with at the moment. She had met Superman a couple of times during the last days of the war. Of course, that had not been as Tess Mercier, so she was sure that he wouldn't know her any more than she would know him outside of his costume.

Her thought process was interrupted when she and the others saw a capeless Superman rise into the air and begin to float away from the boat. At a short distance from the boat, Superman twisted his body in mid-air so he was pointing downwards for a moment before he disappeared into the water.

The next few minutes past in silence as the dozen or so people left at the reception from earlier that morning had congregated to the windows when they had heard Tess mention Superman's name to see what was going to happen next.

Already knowing what the guys had been planning to do, Chloe was not concerned about what was going on, which allowed her to concentrate on other things. So, Chloe was already mentally writing her follow-up story to her Express story. Needless to say already having a certain amount of knowledge of the events of Lex's plane being recovered and what an examination of the wreckage was likely to tell them was definitely an advantage for her.

She was about halfway through it when the hairs on the back of her neck slowly began to stand up alerting her that something unusual was about to happen. Instantly pushing aside all thoughts of her story, Chloe quickly tapped into her powers and extended the range of her own special senses trying to swiftly as possible discover what the source of that danger might be. Suddenly she sensed it and recognized it for what it was; there was something magically lethal in the water and it was headed directly towards Clark.

"_**Clark, behind you! There's an Atlantean torpedo with a magical charge headed your way,"**_Chloe mentally screamed out her warning to her friend hoping that it was in time knowing just how susceptible to magic he really was.

Several moments later everyone who was watching saw a dimly, muted flash of light deep within the water of Aurora Bay about a quarter of a mile away from the _**Harper's Folly**_. The flash was quickly followed by the wave of force created by the underwater explosion, which by the time it reached the shore did nothing more than gently rattle the windows for a moment. Soon after that the ocean surface above the area of the explosion began to bubble and boil as the displaced water finally reached the surface.

As far as Superman was concerned, there was no sign of him.


	9. Secrets and Suspicious Minds Chapter 9

**Chapter 9**

"**Clark, behind you! There's an Atlantean torpedo with a magical charge headed your way,"**_ Chloe mentally screamed out her warning to her friend hoping that it was in time knowing just how susceptible to magic that he really was._

_Several moments later everyone who was watching saw a dimly, muted flash of light deep within the water of Aurora Bay about a quarter of a mile away from the _**Harper's Folly**_. The flash was quickly followed by the wave of force created by the underwater explosion, which by the time it reached the shore did nothing more than gently rattle the windows of the buildings that immediately lined the shoreline for a moment. Soon after that the ocean surface above the area of the explosion began to bubble and boil as the displaced water began to reach the surface. _

_As far as Superman was concerned, there was no sign of him._

**Earlier…**

After quietly leaving the Metro-Star Express reception at different times and by different exits, Clark, Oliver, Roy, Jimmy and Alicia had met a pre-arranged room of Queen Tower to change before heading for Roy's boat. Once they were appropriately dressed for the weather they were going to encounter out on Aurora Bay, they exited the building by a side entrance where Roy had his pick-up parked. Roy, Oliver and Alicia piled in the front while Clark and Jimmy rode in the back for the trip down to the Starling City Yacht Club. A few minutes later, Roy pulled into the parking space in front of slip #75, which was tucked into one of the far corners of the Yacht Club. Tied up at the pier was the _**"Harper's Folly"**_, which was not only Roy's pride and joy but it was also where he preferred to live.

After he piled out and got a good look at the Roy's boat, Jimmy noticed something different about the design of the boat; the lines looked sleeker with the stern of the boat sat lower to the water than a regular P.T. boat. In fact the whole craft sat a little lower in the water and slightly larger than any P.T. boat Jimmy had ever seen and had more of a look of a pleasure craft than a military one. Unable to curb his natural curiosity had to ask, "Hey Roy, exactly where did you get this thing from? This doesn't look like any P.T. boat I've ever seen."

After looking at Oliver for a moment, who just shrugged at Roy's unasked question; there were really no secrets amongst their select little club. So, he began to explain, "You're right Jimmy. This was a prototype that I was working on for Ollie's Naval R&amp;D division at the end of the war. It was intended to be a replacement and major improvement on the P.T. boats of the day to operate in Japanese home waters during and after Operation Olympic. Then, after the Bomb was dropped, the Navy Department began cancelling contracts and programs across the board, which included this baby. Since the project was already more than 85% complete, I talked it over with Ollie, and he let me complete the work. At the time someone joked that the whole thing was "Harper's folly" and a waste of Queen Industries money, so when we finally put her in the water that is what I named her."

"I really don't see anything that different about her, other than the hull design and its size," Jimmy responded as he was untying one of the two lines holding the boat to the dock.

"That was the idea," Roy replied with a smirk as he took his place behind the helm of the boat and began to throw the necessary switches to start the engines.

"Jimmy," Oliver said as he helped him aboard since he was done untying the boat, "all of the improvements on this thing are internal. Roy's boat has the most sophisticated underwater sensing gear available on this planet and is one of the fastest things on the water. It was one of the test beds for the new turbine engines that we designed. The engines on the MetroStar and Lex's plane are very advanced modifications of the original that was used on the _'Folly'_. That was one of the reasons that I allowed Roy to complete work on this boat. I wanted to use it as one of our test beds for the new engines."

"I'm sure that you'll be suitably impressed Jimmy, once Roy is clear of the harbor and can really open her up," Clark added as he stepped aboard after untying the other line.

With everyone aboard, Roy carefully backed his boat out of its slip and directed it towards the entrance of the harbor. Due to the speed restrictions within the harbor it took the better part of ten minutes before they were finally out of the harbor. Once they were, Roy steadily applied more power to the engines whose steady thrum could easily be heard, but never overpowered anyone's ability to hear to anything else. In less than a minute the _'Folly'_ was already up to 60 m.p.h. and still accelerating; that was when Roy pulled a lever mounted to the outside of the throttle control. That action caused the hydrofoil mounted just behind the bow to deploy which lifted it up out of the water greatly reducing the drag of the boat through the water. Within another minute, the _'Harper's Folly' _was doing better than 100 m.p.h. through the waters of the bay and was quickly approaching the search area. Roy began easing back on the speed and soon retracted the hydrofoil. Barely three minutes after leaving the harbor Roy was already easing his boat to a stop next to the float that marked the spot where the wreckage had been pulled up earlier that morning.

"Well," Roy asked as he looked at Jimmy who was standing next to Alicia inside the cabin of the boat.

"Mark me as being duly impressed," Jimmy admitted. "This baby definitely has the speed requirement covered with no problem, but just what can its other equipment do?"

"Let's go below and I'll show you," Roy said as he moved to a short stairwell that led below deck to a companionway that ran the length of the boat.

As Jimmy and Alicia followed him, Oliver took over at the helm and Clark made his way to the bow of the boat and began using his various visual senses to start scanning the ocean floor for the rest of the debris from the crash.

Roy led the way just a few steps going forward from the gangway to a locked door situated on the starboard (right) side of the boat. Taking a set of keys from his coat pocket, Roy soon had the door unlocked and thrown open allowing his two guests a view of what lay in the cabin beyond. After stepping into the room, Alicia and Jimmy saw that there were three separate stations that were equipped with all kinds of scopes, gauges, and dials.

Once they had a moment to look around, Roy started in on description of just what it was they were looking at as he stepped up to the station closest to the door.

"This is our sonar system," Roy began. "It has an active search mode that allows us to 'ping' the area for possible targets below. The passive mode allows us to simply listen to what is going on beneath us. Next is our radar station that gives a view from horizon to horizon of everything that is on the surface and in the air. This other station houses our fathometer and our magnetometer. The fathometer gives us reading the depth of the ocean directly below us; while the magnetometer allows us to detect various pieces of metal that we pass over. Naturally, the larger the piece of metal the easier it is for this machine to detect it. This little gizmo is what allowed us to discover the first piece of the wreckage. It also gave the location of another sizeable piece of metal, but the draglines that were swept over the area never snagged on to anything. That's why Oliver was so glad to know that Clark was coming out here. He figures that it shouldn't take him that long to find what we somehow have been missing."

"Any chance of getting a demonstration," Alicia asked rather interested in what she was looking at.

"I was hoping one of you would ask that," Roy said with a grin like a little boy who wanted to show off his newest toy as he sat down at the third station and began throwing the necessary switches to turn it on.

**At that moment…**

**Aboard the "E'strius"**

**Some 30 miles away**

Brektis' attention was attracted to the flashing light on his console amongst the myriad of other indicator lights that were situated there. By reaching up and touching Brektis brought up the readings of that particular sensor that the light indicated on his display. A series of symbols soon filled the display of his console with that information. After a quick scan of what was before him, Brektis turned and announced, "Captain, our sensors are picking a variety of energy readings in our target area. They indicate that the surface dwellers are actively searching the area."

"Thank you, Brektis," the Captain acknowledged and then turned his attention to his intercom and pressed a certain button. "Ialnar!"

"Yes, Captain."

"I'm going to need to maximum output from your reactors for a brief amount of time, again," the Captain said.

"At your command, sir!"

"Very good, Ialnar. Give me maximum power, Now! Nai," the Captain called to his helmsman.

"Sir?"

"Give me Battle Speed!"

"Yes, sir."

"Trorrar!" the Captain called to his weapons chief. "Load all tubes, and be sure that at least one of them has one of the special warheads."

"It will be done, Captain," Trorrar responded and began seeing to it that his commander's wishes were fulfilled.

**Meanwhile…**

**Back aboard the **_**"Harper's Folly"**_

"Clark, we should be coming up to the area where we had the strongest magnetometer reading," Oliver called out. Clark, not wanting to take his attention away from his scanning the bottom of the bay, acknowledged Oliver with a quick wave of his hand.

The last few minutes had been spent going back and forth in a general search pattern while Clark had been determining the extent and direction of the debris field that the crash had created. Oliver had been following Clark's hand signals of which direction to take while Roy and the others were below checking things out on the Folly's sonar and other devices.

Then, just a few moments after Oliver's announcement, Clark spotted what they were looking for.

"Bingo! We've found it," Clark announced from where he was standing on the bow of the boat giving Oliver a thumbs-up. "It's about 200 yards ahead and 15 degrees to port."

Oliver made the necessary course change that brought to rest directly above the wreck. When they were dead in the water, Oliver used the bridge's handset to call to Roy.

"Roy, Clark's found it," Oliver told him before asking, "Just how deep are we looking at here?"

Roy gave a quick glance at the fathometer before replying, "I'm getting a reading of 326 feet, Ollie."

"Thanks, Roy," Oliver said before hanging up the handset and turning to Clark, who was just re-entering the bridge area, to relay to him the information that Roy had just given him.

"I don't know how the draglines could have missed it. I'm positive that they passed over this area more than once in the last few days," a somewhat confused Oliver stated.

"That's not too surprising," Clark told him. "The fuselage is wedged into a narrow, but rather deep crevasse and is sitting about fifty feet below lip of the opening. It would have been a miracle for a dragline to have snagged onto it."

"How hard do you think is going to be for you to bring it up," Oliver asked.

"From the looks of things down there, I believe it is going to be rather easy," Clark answered. "The main part of the fuselage is still intact. It is badly damaged and a bit twisted, but the port (left) wing is still attached. It just goes to prove just how good a job the builders did on it for it to still be in that condition."

"Is that depth going to be a problem for you?" Oliver inquired.

"It shouldn't be," Clark responded.

"You might as well get changed so this looks good," Oliver said with a slight smirk on his lips.

"Yeah, I guess it's time to call in the cavalry," Clark joked as he pushed a small button set on the side of his watch and held it for a few seconds before releasing it.

"What are you doing, calling yourself for help?" Oliver asked in a joking voice referring to the signal watches that Clark had given to his friends based off the original one the Jimmy had made.

"In a manner of speaking, yes," Clark replied with a grin before going below to change into his uniform.

A minute or so later, Clark and the others came back up on deck. Clark was dressed in his Superman outfit; minus the cape.

"Are you ready," Oliver asked.

"Just about, I'm waiting for someone else to arrive," Clark answered as he began to concentrate on the muscle groups located just beneath the skin of his face. After a moment or so those muscles began to flinch and move as they rearranged themselves and Clark Kent's face began to take on the features known to the world as Superman.

"I know I should be use to by now," Alicia commented as she watched Clark change his features, "but that still amazes me somehow."

"Well, the first time I saw him do that I nearly lost my lunch," Roy added with a smile at the memory.

"Just who are we waiting for," Jimmy wanted to know.

"Me," Clark replied in deeper and different tone of voice that he instinctively slipped into whenever he became Superman.

Before anyone else had a chance to ask for further clarification on that point from Clark, their attention was drawn back towards shore by the sound of a distant sonic boom that came rolling in from somewhere east of Starling City. Within moments the figure of another "Superman" could be seen headed directly towards Roy's boat.

Oliver looked over at Clark and simply asked, "Robot?"

"Robot," Clark confirmed.

"Okay, boss," Alicia said, "when did you add this little item to your inventory of stuff?"

"This summer during my 'prolonged vacation'," Clark say in way of an answer as his Superman robot came in for a landing on the bow of the boat and then joined everyone in the bridge area. Clark looked at the robot and told it, "Go below and wait there."

"Yes, sir," it replied in the exact same voice and moved to comply with its orders.

"I guess it was time we got this show on the road," Clark replied as he began to slowly rise into the air. After moving a bit away from the boat, Clark maneuvered himself in the air so that he was pointing directly downward before knifing straight down and disappearing into the water.

Clark dove straight down towards the wreckage of Lex's plane. As he descended deeper and deeper into the water the amount of available light quickly lessened. By the time he reached the crevasse that was the plane's current resting place a normal human would not have been able to see his hand in front of his face without some artificial source of light. Fortunately that problem did not hamper Clark in the slightest; with his enhanced senses Clark was able to see with no problem. To him everything appeared only a little bit dimmer than it had on the surface being a heavily overcast day. In fact the area surrounding him in any direction up 6-7 miles appeared that way.

After reaching the lip of the crevasse, Clark didn't slow his pace as he continued his dive down into it. When he arrived at the nose of the aircraft, Clark didn't hesitate even a moment before acquiring a good grip on the wreckage and beginning to gently lift it out of the crevasse completely unaware of the danger that was quietly and quickly moving towards him among the depths.

**Aboard the "E'strius"**

"Motion in the water, Captain; range 5 miles," Brektis sang out as the information flashed across his display.

"Forward sensors, maximum range and resolution!" the Captain ordered.

Brektis moved quickly to comply with the order. In a few moments an image of exactly what they had been sent here to destroy began to appear on the bridge's main viewing screen. To everyone on the bridge that image was the scene of the wreckage of an aircraft used by the surface dwellers seemingly rising from seabed as if by magic; everyone that is except the captain, who suspected something else all together. Moments later the captain's suspicions were confirmed as the nose of the aircraft came into view followed shortly by the source of the wreckage's upward momentum.

"Superman!" the Captain hissed. Now he wished that he had all of his tubes loaded with the special warheads with the magical charge his superior had given him for just this possibility as he screamed out, _**"Trorrar, target Superman and fire all tubes! Then reload all tubes with the special warheads!"**_

"Aye, aye, sir," Trorrar replied without breaking his concentration from his targeting display. It took only a moment and the pushing of a couple of buttons before three Atlantean torpedoes were streaking towards their target, a target that the Captain was fully aware of being susceptible to the magic charge that was in the torpedo with the special warhead.

Once Clark had cleared the opening of the crevasse, he finally did the one thing he had been putting off until he had no further excuses; he concentrated his sight into the cabin of the plane and activated his X-ray vision and began peeling away the layers of the fuselage to get a good look inside at the only two people who had been on board for the flight. As he figured, he saw Lex strapped into the left hand seat inside the flight cabin. Next to him in the co-pilot's seat was Jerry Schmidt, Lex's friend and one of the men that had been a part of his crew on the Doolittle mission. His death only made Clark feel regret and sadness at their passing.

Clark couldn't help but take one more look at the two men. As he did, that funny feeling he got when something wasn't quite right with what was in front of him began urgently tapping him on the shoulder. Taking a more detached look at what he was seeing, Clark quickly realized that there was something different about the way Lex looked compared to Jerry. Lex looked perfectly natural while Jerry's body was already showing the sign of what happens to skin that has been submerged in water for a long period of time.

Beginning to hope against hope that his friend might still alive, Clark delved deeper into scanning Lex's body. It took less than a moment to confirm what he had started to suspect just moments before, Lex Luthor was alive!

Under a coating of what Clark took to be some form of synthetic skin and muscles, he could clearly see some type of metal frame that accurately mimicked the human skeleton. The more he studied the figure strapped into the pilot's seat the more perplexed Clark became. There was only one person he knew of who could even begin to create a robot of such sophistication, but that individual had not seen or heard of since late 1944. It was also more advanced than any of that person's creations that Clark as Superman had ever encountered. It was only when he examined the control/logic circuits housed in the skull of the robot that he knew for sure that what he had started to fear was true; the robot that had replaced Lex Luthor had been manufactured by the Ultra-Humanite!

After another moment of closely examining those circuits, Clark recognized some elements of the technology on display before him and the knowledge of its origin caused him to mentally think to himself, _"Son of a..."_

"_**Clark, behind you! There's an Atlantean torpedo with a magical charge headed your way,"**_Chloe mentally screamed out her warning to her friend which kept him from completing his thought.

Instantly shaken from his contemplation of the occupants of the airplane's interior, Clark instinctively shifted to superspeed and everything around him literally ground to a halt as he began looking in the direction Chloe had indicated as he lowered the wreckage he was holding to the ocean floor. Locating the three torpedoes was easy enough, as was spotting the Atlantean Manta-class submarine that had launched them. By the time he had finished putting down mangled fuselage Clark was already calling upon his heat vision as he calculated the aim he was going to need to take out all three. Once he had released three short, precise bursts of heat vision at their targets, he dropped out of superspeed and launched himself at the submarine as he mentally made a slight alteration to the polarity and wavelength of the electromagnetic field that provided the greatest part of his invulnerability, in addition to the dense molecular composition of his body.

Barely a second after Clark dropped out of superspeed; all three torpedoes exploded simultaneously creating three underwater blasts of two different colors; two were whitish in color while the third was a bluish-white. Regardless of their color, all three created the same effect that blinded the E'strius and its crew to just where Superman was and what had happened to him.

"Captain, premature detonation of all torpedoes," Trorrar yelled out unnecessarily as he announced the obvious to everyone on the bridge.

After uttering an obscenity that had no equivalent in any human language, the captain began barking orders, "Ialnar, Emergency Power! Nai, Evasive Maneuvers! We have to dodge him until we are ready fire again!"

"Too late, Captain," Brektis uttered with sense of dreadful finality as he saw upon the main view screen a completely unscathed Superman emerge from the area of the three explosions and began closing fast on what was clearly a collision course with the E'strius.

Seeing that Brektis was right, the Captain called out throughout the ship over the intercom system, "Brace for impact!"

At the captain's warning every member of the crew instantly braced themselves for collision and waited for the impact.

And waited… and waited… In fact everyone was so keyed up and anxious that no one noticed the flashing indicator light showing that someone had accessed the airlock/hatchway system from outside of the submarine.

After a few moments everyone on the bridge began to look at each other what had happened, especially the captain. Just as he was getting ready to issue an order to scan the surrounding area when power to all the major systems throughout the vessel went completely dead.

"Ialnar?" the captain called out into the intercom and received no immediate response as the emergency lighting came on. "Ialnar?!"

The captain's attention was distracted by a sudden gust of wind that swept quickly through the bridge area and was promptly accompanied by every member of the bridge crew collapsing into unconsciousness.

"Ialnar is not going to be answering you, Tarantis," a deep authoritative voice said from behind where the captain was seated in perfect Atlantean. "In fact, none of your crew is in any condition to help you."

Tarantis slowly turned in his seat as his right hand, inconspicuously as possible, began to undo the flap of the holster on his hip as he glared hatefully at, "Superman."

"So, why are you here, Tarantis," Superman asked. "Despite how much Ronal may not like me, I don't think you came all this way just to try and kill me?"

"Killing you will be a bonus for me," Tarantis sneered, "and one that I will be richly rewarded for considering what you have done to the royal family."

"I have done nothing to the royal family, and I never would. So, if I'm not the reason you're here for, then what exactly is it," Superman pressed.

"I was personally commanded by the Prime Minister to destroy all evidence of the wreckage you were bringing up," Tarantis replied.

"So, you are still Ronal's lap dog; or have you finally stabbed him in back?" Superman asked with a slight smirk tugging at his lips. "You are going to pay a very steep price for your actions today, Tarantis, when the queen hears about them."

"Oh, I still serve the Prime Minister, Superman, but it is no longer Ronal," Tarantis replied. "And Queen Lemaris is in no position to be able to punish me for anything I have done, or will do in the future."

"What do you mean?" Superman asked with a hint of concern beginning to enter into the tone of his voice.

"Queen Lemaris is dead," Tarantis spat out as his hand slowly closed around the butt of the pistol he carried.

In brief blur Superman closed the distance between him and the captain of the E'strius before lifting him up out of his seat with one hand clenched firmly around his neck. "If you are thinking to play me as a fool I will know, Tarantis. Now the truth, or so help me I'll launch you out of one of your own torpedo tubes sufficiently cut up enough to attract every shark for miles. You can try and explain your duplicity to them."

"Threats are not called for Superman," Tarantis said with a smarmy smile as he slowly and carefully pulled the pistol from its holster. "I'll be more than happy to tell you; Queen Lemaris died two years ago giving birth to your whelps. Her cousin, Princess Alassa was named regent by the royal council to rule until your bastard can assume the throne, and Ronal's brother, Marius, is now the Prime Minister."

"What do you mean my children," Superman asked. "We were lovers only once."

"Ample proof that you are all muscle and no brain, Superman; even you should know that all it takes is once," Tarantis taunted him. "Ronal was incapable of conceiving any children. This was a fact that he shared only with me and his wife. Queen Lemaris' pregnancy was the reason she left your precious Justice Society before the war was over. She returned to conceal the truth from her people. It was your meta-human physiology that caused the complications during the birth. The doctors were able to save the babies, but the strain was too much for the queen and was ultimately the cause of her death. The only reason the girl survived was the need to continue the façade of the royal line and the peace that it insures for the time being. Your blood has tainted that of the Royal Household."

"You said the girl survived?" Superman asked beginning to fear what the answer most likely was going to be. "What about the other? Was it a boy?"

"Maybe there are a few brain cells inside that thick skull of yours after all," Tarantis quipped. "Yes, Superman, the other child was a boy, and you know what Atlantean law dictates be done with male babies born to the Royal house."

"By Rao, no," a shocked Superman stammered as his senses confirmed that Tarantis so far had been telling him was the truth.

"That's right, Superman, at least one of your bastards was properly dealt with," Tarantis maliciously sneered. "Ronal himself took the boy away to deal with it the way any garbage should be dealt with. He took the child and never returned, and that is why his brother now serves in his place as Prime Minister.

"I have told you nothing that is not true, Superman," Tarantis said with a smile seeing the pain in his eyes. "As much as a low-life individual as you may think me to be, I would never tell anything but the truth to someone who is about to die, especially when it is such a deliciously painful truth.

"I believe I am also supposed to tell you that the princess has an ally that one day will insure that she and not that misbegotten brat of yours sits upon the throne of Atlantis," Tarantis spat out. "In fact he was the one that gave me the weapons to insure your destruction on the off chance that you might interfere with our mission. Somehow you managed to avoid the torpedoes that he had Marius make just for you. But let's see if you can survive this!"

With that said, Tarantis quickly drew his pistol from its holster before jabbing the barrel of his gun into a distracted Superman's chest and pulling the trigger; all in one swift motion. A powerful flash of green energy flared out from the barrel of the pistol and covered Superman's chest as the sound of a pulse of high energy being released filled the bridge of the submarine.


	10. Secrets and Suspicious Minds Chapter 10

**Chapter 10**

_. . . __Tarantis quickly drew his pistol from its holster before jabbing the barrel of his gun into a distracted Superman's chest and pulling the trigger; all in one swift motion. A powerful flash of green energy flared out from the barrel of the pistol and covered Superman's chest as the sound of a pulse of high-energy being released filled the bridge of the submarine._

As Superman's features were bathed in the green glow of the pistol's blast, he looked down at his chest for a moment as the energy played across it before he looked up at Tarantis with an arched brow that made the sneer of victory on his assailant's lips turn into an expression of astonishment.

"Why does that not surprise me, Tarantis," Superman said with a smirk as part of the green energy began to return and coalesce at the opening of the barrel of Tarantis' pistol. As that energy began to flow back up the barrel of the pistol, Superman pronounced, "Now, you are going to pay for your mistake."

Tarantis stared in disbelief at what was happening, as he began to mutter, "No! It's not possible! He promised that this would destroy. . ."

Tarantis' next words were drowned out by the piercing whine of the energy building up to overload within the power chamber of the pistol. When the levels inside the pistol reached a critical level, the power chamber ruptured releasing a blast of green energy between the two men which hurdled both of them backwards. Superman quickly gained control of himself and came to hover only a few feet away from where he and Tarantis had been standing.

Tarantis was not so fortunate. He took the brunt of the blast and was slammed into the rear wall of the bridge with such force that it left a slight indentation in it. It also fractured the back of his skull and snapped his spine at the base of the neck.

Superman floated over and looked down upon the crumpled form of his vanquished foe. After making a quick scan of Tarantis' injuries, Superman knew that he would not survive without some immediate help and there was only one person immediately available to help with that.

"_Alicia,"_ Superman quietly called out in his mind.

"_God Clark, we were starting to get worried up here,"_ Alicia responded with her relief very evident in her thoughts. _"What happened down there?"_

"_Strangely enough I ran into an old acquaintance from Atlantis that tried to kill me for reasons I'll explain later," _Superman replied. _"But for right now I need "Miss Cosmos" to come down here to help keep someone from dying."_

"_I'll be right there,"_ Alicia answered. _"Do I need to bring anyone else with me?"_

"_No, I think that we should be able to take care of things without anyone else,"_ Superman told her.

"_Alright, just give me a moment to tell the others what is going on and then I'll be right down,"_ Alicia said before breaking her connection with Clark.

Once Alicia was no longer in contact with him, Clark knew that there was someone he had better touch base with before they became too worried about what might have happened to him.

"_Chloe?"_

**Elsewhere. . . **

Chloe was really beginning to get a little bit worried when she had not heard anything else from Clark after she had sent him that warning. She had not tried to make any further contact for fear of interrupting him at a critical moment if he was in some kind of fight, but her patience had just about run out.

"_Chloe?"_ she finally heard Clark calling out to her.

"_Yes, Clark! Are you okay,"_ an immensely relived Chloe inquired.

"_Yes, I'm fine, thanks to your warning,"_ Clark told her as he quickly began to briefly explain what had happened without going into what he had been told about Lori and the children he had not known about. That was something that he would tell her and the others about when the moment seemed appropriate. However, considering what he had learned about who they were going to have to be going up against, Clark had decided that the time to tell Tess the whole truth about himself couldn't be put off any longer; especially with what he had learned about his origins during the past few months. Not only did he have to tell Tess the truth about himself, there were a number of things about his origins that he had not shared with any of his friends or his family.

As Clark filled her in on what had happened, Chloe's whole posture began to relax. The Kents, all three of them, had been closely watching Chloe so the moment the tenseness in her body started to leave her, they knew that Clark was okay.

No one else in the room had noticed this except for Tess. She was worried that Clark and the others on Roy's boat might have been hurt by whatever had caused that underwater explosion. She was also concerned for Superman wondering if he would be able to survive something like that since she could only begin to imagine the effect of what an underwater explosion like that would be like.

Like everyone else in the room, Tess had been staring out the window at what was happening out in the bay, but she had occasionally glanced over at Chloe and Clark's family out her concern for their fears about him. It had been during one of those brief glances that she had seen Chloe suddenly and noticeably relax all the tension in her posture and the Kents do the same a moment or so later. For some strange reason Tess knew that somehow they were aware of the fact that everything was alright. While that thought intrigued her, Tess knew that now was not the moment to question it; that could wait for another time.

**Meanwhile . . . ****Aboard the "E'strius"**

Alicia had ported in several moments ago while Clark was in contact with Chloe. When she arrived she had already altered her clothes and features to go along with her "Miss Cosmos" persona so no one among the crew would be able to recognize her later on the off chance any of them woke up before they were done.

When Clark was done communicating with Chloe, he turned towards Alicia and told her the extent of Tarantis' injuries so she would know exactly what it was she needed to do to keep him from dying. As he watched her begin to heal her patient, Clark couldn't help but remember just how his attractive coworker and fellow superhero had gotten to be who she was.

Alicia had first gained her powers in the months preceding America's entry into the war. Alicia was the only surviving child of John and Virginia Baker, who were both professors in Columbia University's College of Science, and as such she had grown up in a very rich academic environment. As a young child Alicia was already showing the promise of her intelligence that allowed her to graduate from high school at the age of 15. By the time she was 18, Alicia had completed her undergraduate degree in physics when her life took an unforeseen turn into the unknown.

During the summer of 1941, Alicia was one of the assistants to Dr. Rudolph Wells, who was the head of the U.S. Government's Project M, which was endeavoring to discover some way to endow people with super powers to counter similar experiments they were aware of being done by the Axis powers. As one failure followed another, the government began to lose interest in the project and finally decided to shut the whole operation down in late August after the death of one of the volunteers who was being experimented upon.

On the night the project had officially been terminated, Alicia was working late with another assistant, Harold Franklin, to secure the major pieces of equipment that were to be shipped to other projects that had already been slated to receive the resources of Project M. When they disconnected the Zeta-Vitality Wave emitter from its power source, they were surprised that the machine continued to keep running and began to build up an ever increasing charge of energy that it was somehow siphoning from some unknown source. In a matter of moments the machine reached its limits and overloaded. The resulting explosion bathed both of the young people in unknown forms of energy while also rendering them unconscious.

When Alicia and Harold regained consciousness, they were surprised that they were both still alive and only the one piece of equipment had been destroyed. Alicia reported the incident to Dr. Wells and that seemed to be the last of the whole matter.

But fate had decreed differently for in the ensuing days Alicia discovered that the explosion had granted her the ability to alter matter and teleport to anywhere she wanted to go within a thousand mile radius. What Alicia didn't know at the time was that the explosion had not only granted her those two abilities. In fact, the explosion had actually given Alicia the ability to control and manipulate the time/space continuum; her ability to alter matter and teleport were just the first two manifestations of that power.

Adopting a patriotically-themed costume, she began fighting evil within New York City as Miss America. In the following weeks, her activities came to the attention of certain individuals in Washington who eventually sought her out. She invited by Uncle Sam to become a member of his Freedom Fighters whose first mission was a preemptive strike against Japan's oncoming attack on Pearl Harbor. The mission was a complete failure, as all of Uncle Sam's troops seemingly perished in their efforts. However, three members did survive and a comatose Miss America was among them. Alicia was reclaimed by a reopened Project M and kept in stasis. Six months later she was awoken from her coma due to the collateral damage caused by a battle between the Young-All Stars and the Ultra-Humanite, which occurred during the former's tour of Project M alongside Robot-Man. After aiding the heroes against Ultra-Humanite, Alicia promptly returned to the defense of her country, joining the All-Star Squadron and later became a member of the Justice Society of America.

It was during her time with the Justice Society that Alicia met two of the people that would have a powerful influence on her life. The first was Clark Kent, a.k.a. Superman, and the other was James "Jimmy" Bartholomew Olsen. Clark Kent was the first to truly realize the scope of Alicia's powers and helped her to develop them beyond simply altering matter and teleporting. Under his tutelage, Alicia learned to alter both organic and inorganic matter, extended her ability teleport to enable her to go anywhere on the planet, heal any damage to herself and others, project a powerful blast of energy, and the ability to fly at speeds nearly rivaling those that Superman could achieve.

In early 1944, Clark Kent introduced Alicia to a friend of his from Metropolis, Jimmy Olsen. Clark and Alicia had both recently finished missions for the All-Star Squadron and were in London preparing for their next mission together that was going to take them into Sweden and occupied Norway. At a USO club, Clark spotted Jimmy from across the room. Jimmy was in England working for the Army as a war correspondent covering the build-up and training for the coming invasion of Fortress Europe. The two young people were instantly infatuated with each other and have remained so ever since.

Alicia had taken on the moniker of "Miss Cosmos" after she had barely survived sacrificing herself to save her fellow heroes of the All-Star Squadron from a deathtrap set by the Ultra Humanite in a secret facility hidden inside a Bavarian alp. The trap was part of a facility that the Nazis had been conducting atomic research in. The Ultra Humanite had altered the atomic reactor in the underground facility to go super critical once the heroes were trapped in the lead-lined chamber directly above it. Once the trap had been sprung there was no way to shut it down and only Alicia knew that she had the ability to save her friends. Using her abilities, she absorbed all of the energy being released from the reactor into herself. Knowing that there was no way she would be able to contain that much energy for long, Alicia used a portion of the power to blow a hole through the side of the chamber and the nearly 1500 feet of the mountain they were inside. With a way to escape open to her friends, Alicia teleported herself beyond Earth's atmosphere and more than halfway to the moon where she released all of the absorbed energy in a mighty blast that scattered the molecules that made up her body across the gulf between the Earth and the moon.

While her physical body was dispersed and considered destroyed, Alicia's consciousness somehow survived. Over the following weeks, Alicia was able to regather the physical matter that had once been her body and to reform it into a new one. By the time the atomic bombs had burst over Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Alicia's physical form was once again whole and amongst the living. In fact it was the electro-magnetic pulse released by the Nagasaki bomb that woke up her sleeping form. Instinctively, Alicia teleported to where that signal had originated which explained her appearance over Nagasaki moments after the blast and was recorded by one of the trailing B-29s that was filming the drop.

Her brush with death did have some lasting effects on Alicia. She soon discovered that her powers been greatly enhanced in some ways and she had gained others outside of ability to control the time/space continuum. She had literally been communing with the cosmos during her time in space. That experience had left her far more aware of all existence around her.

Alicia's return to the world of the living coincided Jimmy's return as well. Shortly after her apparent death, Jimmy had not really been himself and had been reassigned to the China-Burma-India Theater in the hopes that different surroundings would help him come to terms with his grief. While in route to his new assignment the plane Jimmy was on disappeared in a storm over the Himalayas. About two months later Jimmy had been found and rescued. He was still in Kunming when the news that Miss America had been spotted in the airspace over Nagasaki moments after the A-bomb had gone off.

Alicia and Jimmy's return to world of the living coincided with the war officially coming to an end. All of their friends were surprised and happy about their return.

With the war over and the advent of the HRA in early 1946, Alicia's brief career as Miss Cosmos came to an end when she decided to go underground like many of her friends in the hero racket. She accepted Clark's offer to be part of a detective agency that he was going to start up in Metropolis. She also wanted to get away from her old life in New York City and Metropolis was the obvious choice to her on where to go. She had done that for a couple of different reasons. The first was it would allow her to be close to Jimmy who went back to work at the Daily Planet. While the other was the fact that she wanted to continue her education at the Metropolis Institute of Technology while Jimmy was working on completing his own degree in Photo-Journalism at Metropolis University. In her free time, inspired by Clark's own writing career, she had even started writing a series of detective short stories with female protagonists under the pseudonym of Joan Dale.

After clearing his head of those memories, Clark took a moment to watch as describe as Alicia knelt beside the unconscious Tarantis and gently touched his forehead. The moment her fingers touched his skin a light green-colored began to cover Tarantis' entire body. Seeing that Alicia had matters well in hand, Clark turned to his own of rounding up the unconscious crew members and re-establishing the power throughout the ship.

For the better part of about five minutes Tarantis was cocooned in the energy field that was quickly healing his injuries and repairing the damage to his neck. By the time she was done Clark had turned the power back on throughout the ship and was in the process of programming the guidance system of the vessel to take the E'strius out to a spot in the middle of the Pacific. Clark realized that the crew was going to recover long before they reached the destination that he was setting into the auto-pilot. So, he deliberately tied the guidance system into the main reactors in such a manner that if Tarantis and his crew tried to override his programming in any manner the reactors would shut down and the E'strius would be dead in the water for nearly two days. Either way, by the time Tarantis and his men regained control of their ship, they would be a long way from Starling City and out of their hair.

"Are we done here, boss?" Alicia asked as she stood up from where she had been kneeling next to Tarantis' prostrate form as Clark came back onto the bridge.

"Just about," Clark told her as he came towards her and pointed at something over on the far side of the bridge from where they were standing. "Do you see that piece of the twisted metal?"

After Alicia looked in the direction that Clark was indicating and nodded her head, he continued, "Tarantis claimed that was a weapon that should have had the ability to kill me."

That comment caused Alicia to raise an eyebrow in interest, as she said, "Obviously it didn't, but you would still like for me to take a look at it to see what I can learn from it, right?"

"I hate being so predictable," Clark said with a small smile.

"Only at certain moments, Clark," Alicia replied with her own answering smirk as she went over and retrieved what was left of Tarantis' weapon.

"Let's wrap this up," Clark announced. "We have people waiting for us to let them know what has been going on."

"I'll see you topside," Alicia replied before disappearing in a shimmering of greenish-colored light.

As soon as Alicia was gone, Clark did a quick check of the ship before engaging a thirty second delay on the auto-pilot and leaving the E'strius the same way he had entered her.

**Moments later, aboard the **_**Harper's Folly**_**…**

"Ollie, I don't know any more than what I have already told you," Alicia patiently explained to Clark's brother-in-law who was still trying figure out what had been going on below them.

"I still can't understand why someone from Atlantis would want Clark dead," Roy stated.

"I guess we are just going to have to wait until…" Jimmy started to say, but was interrupted as the tail of Lex's plane began to appear a couple hundred yards off their bow as it broke the surface of Aurora Bay.

Slowly and steadily Superman carefully lifted the aircraft from the water and higher into the air. As it emerged into the pale afternoon light that was just now peering through the thinning clouds, the droplets of water that were cascading off of its surfaces began to shimmer as they reflected the light. Upon reaching a height of about a hundred feet above the water, Superman began moving his burden towards the shoreline and the Queen Industries warehouse that had been set aside to examine any of the wreckage that might be recovered. The remnants of Lex's plane would be joining the piece that had been found earlier that morning. Following closely behind Superman was the _**Harper's Folly**_ with Oliver radioing instructions ahead for his people to be ready when Superman arrived and Jimmy shooting shot after of shot of Superman in action. It just wasn't everyday that people got to see Superman like they did before the passing of the HRA. And besides, Jimmy's job was recording the news, which helped him to pay the rent.

Oliver's people were ready by the time Superman arrived and had the warehouse doors fully open allowing him easy access to the interior. Without the necessity of having to stop, Superman simply moved the wreckage into the warehouse and gently lowered it to the floor. With that done, he turned back towards the entrance and lifted back into the air. As he past the entrance he called down a "thank you" to the workmen who were in the process of closing the doors back up again before moving over to where the others were busy tying up Roy's boat to the dock in front of the warehouse. Going aboard for what appeared to be a brief consultation with Oliver Queen, Superman remerged several moments later with the passengers from the _**Harper's Folly**_ and all of them began to make their way to warehouse.

Upon arriving at the warehouse Oliver added his thanks to the foreman and his crew for having everything ready for Superman's arrival. At his own suggestion, Jimmy began taking pictures of the whole group and then individual shots of Superman with his friends and the members of the work crew that had helped. This little gathering had gone on for perhaps ten minutes when the wail of approaching sirens could clearly be heard, which was Superman's cue that it was time to go.

Thanks to the provisions of the HRA, Superman and all of those like him who had not registered with the government were technically working outside of the law every time they did something to simply help out. So, more than likely, there were going to be some agents of the federal government in the caravan of vehicles quickly approaching the docks. That meant that once again they were futilely going to try to bring Superman in to answer for his "crimes" as they saw it. And once again, Jimmy Olsen was going to be there to photograph their "Keystone Cops" antics for the readers of the Daily Planet. There were some days that Jimmy just had it too easy in doing his job.

While that circus act was playing itself out, the other city and government officials that had been in the group coming to the docks began talking with Oliver Queen since Superman's departure had left him to be the one to answer their questions. Oliver began by giving the "official" story of Superman's involvement in the recovery efforts stemmed from the fact that as a friend of Lex Luthor he had agreed to lend a hand to help speed up the recovery of the wrecked aircraft and had come after the first of the wreckage had been discovered earlier that morning.

While Oliver was busy dealing with the officials, he did notice that Tess Mercier, Linda Queen, Senator &amp; Mrs. Kent, and Chloe Olsen had arrived with the caravan of officials. They were headed with the others for the hanger office to have a private chat about what had really happened before making any decisions on what to further tell the press and the government types.

Once they were inside the office and safely away from prying eyes and ears Tess walked up to Clark and carefully looked him over for a brief moment before stepping in close to him before asking in a voice only he would be able, "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine Tess," Clark responded as he pulled her into a gentle hug to reassure her that everything was okay.

"Well, you are not going to be after I'm finished with you for sneaking off like that without telling me what you were up to, and especially for not taking me with you," Tess hissed in his ear before she gently, but firmly pushed him away; angry at him for causing her to worry about him the way that she had.

"Tess, I'm sorry if you are upset about all of this, but we were trying to do this as quickly and unobtrusively as possible..."

"Oh, and I suppose you consider having Superman flying in to help falls into the category of "unobtrusive". I see I was foolish for giving you credit for being smarter than that," Tess shot back her ire starting to rise.

"Of course I knew what sort of attention having Superman's involvement was going to create. That's why we didn't tell anyone about it. That would only have made things more difficult by getting the government involved even more than it already was," Clark said with a firmness in his voice that told the others nearby that he was starting to be a little upset himself as he again moved in close to Tess so they were literally nose to nose with each other. "And the reason we didn't take you, or anyone else for that matter, is if everyone suddenly had disappeared from that little wingding at Queen Tower it would have been noticed by someone in the press. That would have gotten them snooping around until they would probably have learned something that I'm pretty sure you that you don't want them to know just yet."

"Oh, and just what pray tell might that be?" Tess asked with an emotion filled voice that was reflected by the challenging look in her emerald green eyes.

"The fact that Lex isn't dead," Clark replied dropping his little bombshell of information that shocked everyone in the room (with the exception of Chloe), and instantly took all of the steam out Tess as those words impacted on the reasoning part of her mind.

A confused and somewhat perplexed Tess stood there for a moment looking at Clark not completely sure if he had really said that Lex was alive. For moment she looked at him as if she was trying to believe that he wasn't telling some kind of a sick joke just to throw her off the subject of their current discussion.

"What?" Tess asked for everyone else in the room who was just as stunned as she was.

"Lex is not dead. He is still very much among the land of the living, Tess. Unfortunately, I just don't happen to know at the moment where he is among the living," Clark announced before looking at his sister.

"Linda, would you go get Oliver. He needs to be here for what I'm about to tell all of you, and I don't want to have to repeat it," Clark asked in a voice that made it obvious that his request was more along the lines of an order.

"I'll be right back," Linda replied as she moved towards the office door leading out of the hanger.

As Linda made her way from the room, Clark turned to Alicia and told her, "I need you to go get Gabe and Margo."

"Are you sure about this, Clark," Alicia asked looked purposefully at Tess who was trying to understand everything that was coming at her so fast.

"We can trust her, Alicia," Clark assured her before pausing and looking in Tess' direction as well. "Tess has her own secrets that she is reluctant to share easily with anyone. I know that we can trust her with our own. Besides she was going to find out about us eventually anyways, so with might as well get this over with. In the long run it will probably make things a bit easier."

"Okay, you're the boss," Alicia said with a confident grin before she disappeared in a shimmer of green-colored light.

Tess was so shocked by Clark's announcement of her having her own secrets that she normally didn't share with others that she barely registered Alicia's sudden departure. Her sudden fear from what she speculated that Clark might know about her was lessened somewhat by Alicia's display, but it still didn't start to explain just what it was that was going on. It was beginning to feel to her that she had stumbled onto something very important. She wasn't sure yet if it was good thing or a bad one. So for the moment she decided to trust in her love for Clark and give him and his friends the benefit of the doubt and see what happened. After all, she had learned from experiences like this that it was best to exercise a bit of restraint and be patient to see what developed when you dealt with the unknown.

Any further thoughts were interrupted by Linda returning with a slightly confused Oliver in tow. "Clark, what is so important that you had Linda drag me away from..."

Alicia's return with Gabe and Margo Sullivan cut Oliver's comments off and made him look quickly first at Clark and then at Tess who seemed to be taking that little incident with no surprise or shock showing on her face. Accepting the obvious, Oliver turned back to Clark and said, "I see that we are moving right along and not easing Tess into the truth about ourselves."

"I felt the situation called for it, Oliver," Clark told him before turning to Chloe. "If you don't mind, we're going to need _**a few minutes**_ of privacy for what we have got to talk about."

"It will be my pleasure," Chloe said as she stepped to the middle of the office and her eyes began to take on a golden glow. A blazing golden ankh appeared on the palm of her outstretched right hand and a golden wave of power spread out from it.

Within a brief moment, the golden energy flowed throughout the room before dissipating into nothingness. At that point Chloe looked at Clark as she announced, "That should take care of things."

"Now that Chloe has taken care of anyone trying to snoop in on this little get together," Oliver began. "Would you mind telling me what is going on?"

"It's very simple Oliver; Lex isn't dead," Clark told him as he wanted to bring him up to speed as quickly as possible, as well as Gabe and Margo.

"He was replaced by a robot sometime before he left Metropolis on his flight. And, if my hunch is right from what I found when I examined Lex's 'body', then the Ultra-Humanite is responsible for the switch and has Lex stashed away somewhere," Clark continued before telling them about his observations of what he had seen in the cockpit of the aircraft.

Tess was keeping focused on what Clark was saying, but it wasn't easy. Within a matter of minutes she had seen two individuals display powers that she had only heard talked about among her friends and associates all of whom had once been members of the All-Star Squadron and the Justice Society of America. Alicia's little teleporting exhibition fit what little she knew of the superheroine who had been known as "Miss America" and later "Miss Cosmos" with her return from the "dead" after she had seemingly sacrificed herself to save her teammates in the final days of the war in Europe. As for Chloe, her little demonstration had clearly shown that she was wielding the powers of Dr. Fate. If that was true, then Tess now knew that Chloe had been known as the "Phantom Lady" before she had taken over the mantle of Dr. Fate from Kent Nelson.

Obviously, Tess realized, she had somehow become involved with at least two members of the JSA who had gone underground for the last year and a half. And, it was that realization that started Tess speculating on exactly what sort of connection Clark had to the JSA and just what had really happened out in the bay. It was Jimmy's question that brought Tess' attention completely back to the matter at hand.

"But you still haven't explained why someone from Atlantis would want to destroy the wreckage of Lex's plane, Clark," Jimmy's asked. "I can't believe that the queen would stand for such a thing."

"That's because Lori is longer queen," Clark stated in an emotion-filled voice which stunned everyone in the room. After a moment or two, Clark continued, "If what I was told is the truth, Queen Lori Lemaris died shortly after giving birth to a set of twins a little more than two years ago. Her cousin Alassa was named regent until her daughter comes of age. But, at present, that is a thing I doubt that will never happen since Alassa has an ally that is going to insure that it is her, and not Lori's daughter, who one day rules Atlantis."

"Let me guess, the Ultra-Humanite is her ally," Tess said quickly putting those pieces of the puzzle together, "and he asked her to take care of destroying the evidence of his kidnapping Lex. A situation that would not have been necessary if Lana had not had Vincent Edge put out a contract on him that actually succeeded."

"Very succinctly put, Tess. I think you might have missed your calling. Perhaps you should have been a reporter rather than a marine biologist," Chloe complemented her which brought a slight smile to Tess' lips, as well as Clark's.

"I wish I could take credit for that being natural talent, but I'm afraid that was a demonstration of my father's business training," Tess replied before turning to Clark. "But what I don't understand Clark is why you are describing everything as though you were the one down there seeing and hearing everything you have told us about?"

"That's because I was down there," Clark answered.

"But we all saw Superman go down there and bring up the wreckage," Tess shot back as her forehead slightly scrunched up in confusion.

"That would be correct," Clark calmly replied waiting for the connection to be made by Tess.

"But you look nothing like Superman," Tess said as she stated the obvious to herself.

"I'm not the first person who used some version of camouflage to keep their true identity hidden to protect those that they care for," Clark replied with a hint of suggestion in his voice.

That was all it took for Tess finally realize the truth, "You are Superman!"

"Bingo!" Roy cried out. "We have a winner!"


	11. Secrets and Suspicious Minds Chapter 11

**Chapter 11**

"_But we all saw Superman go down there and bring up the wreckage," Tess shot back as her forehead slightly scrunched up in confusion._

"_That would be correct," Clark calmly replied waiting for the connection to be made by Tess._

"_But you look nothing like Superman," Tess said as she stated the obvious to herself._

"_I'm not the first person who used some version of camouflage to keep their true identity hidden to protect those that they care for,__" Clark replied with a hint of suggestion in his voice._

_That was all it took for Tess finally realize the truth, "You are Superman!"_

"_Bingo!" Roy cried out. "We have a winner!"_

As Tess looked at him for the first time knowing his secret, it was easy to see the unique and individual mannerisms that Clark affected to distinguish the differences between himself and his hero identity; namely by the way he carried himself and the way he spoke. At least Tess now knew exactly what Clark's connection to the JSA was; he was its most powerful member next to perhaps Chloe who she now knew to be Dr. Fate. That thought made her wonder just where everyone else fell into the scheme of things.

"Well, if you're Superman, and Chloe and Alicia are Dr. Fate and Miss Cosmos," Tess said as she looked everyone in the room with her, "are the rest of you also members of the JSA?"

Clark looked at the others who either gave him a nod of the head or a shrug of their shoulders as they silently acquiesced to his unspoken question. With their agreement, Clark began the introductions, "Alright Tess, starting around the room, Oliver is the Green Arrow, and you already know that my sister is Lady Blackhawk. Roy used to be known as Speedy, but he now goes by the name of the Crimson Archer. As you said, Chloe is now Dr. Fate and Alicia goes by the title of Miss Cosmos. But previously they were known as the Phantom Lady and Miss America. Chloe's parents are Madame Xanadu and the Wraith. Chloe's father is also one of my dad's older brothers, Frank Morgan Kent, and is therefore my uncle as well. Jimmy is known as the Blazing Skull. And my parents are my parents, though my dad's connections in Washington have proven most useful in the last couple of years."

"What about the others? The Flash, Green Lantern, Wonder Woman, and all the other members of the Justice Society," Tess asked, "What has happened to them?"

"Aside from those members of the JSA and the All-Star Squadron who have joined up with the La Fraternité de Justice et Liberté (a.k.a. The Brotherhood of Justice and Freedom) in Europe, everyone else has retired and gone back to the lives they had before the realities of this world determined that they needed to be heroes," Clark said. Then added to Tess, "And, I want to thank you for giving everyone who joined the FJL a place to feel save and be appreciated."

At the slight blush that tinged Tess' cheeks at Clark's words, some of the others wondered what he meant by that. It was Jimmy who spoke up and asked, "What are you talking about Clark?"

"Jimmy, Mercier AG was the original backer of the FJL when it was founded in 1942 and is still one of its biggest supporters even today," Clark explained.

"I appreciate that Clark," Tess said. "They have greatly added to the FJL's capabilities in the last couple of years." Then getting a mischievous look in her eyes, Tess continued, "I was even told by Firebrand something about you I was wondering if you would confirm for me?"

"How is Danette these days?" Clark asked in return.

"She's fine the last time I talked with her, but are you going to answer my question?"

"Just what was it that Firebrand told you?"

"That you are an alien from another world," Tess answered and waited to see what sort of response her question elicited from the others. From the general lack of any surprise from everyone else in the room it was easy for Tess to conclude that they all knew the truth about Clark.

"What she told is the truth," Clark said simply. "I wasn't born on this planet. In fact, I wasn't born anywhere near this galaxy."

Even though she was expecting that answer, it still surprised Tess how easily Clark admitted to it. What also surprised her was the reaction from the others to Clark's announcement that he wasn't even from this galaxy.

"Honey," Martha asked with her surprise evident in her voice, "when did you learn where you were from?"

"Just this summer," Clark said. "It was the reason I was gone for those three months."

"Well, just where is it that you come from big brother," an impatient and slightly annoyed Linda asked.

"I come from a world that was known as Krypton that was located twenty-three galaxies away from here," Clark responded with a smile at his sister.

"If you are from that far away," Tess began asking, "then how is it that you look… so… "

"Human," Clark finished Tess' question for her when she began to hesitate.

"Yes," Tess replied.

"The real question isn't why do I look like a human Earthling," Clark responded. "The real question should be why do humans on this planet look so much like a Kryptonian?"

"What?!" exclaimed Chloe, which surprised Tess and the others since they all believed if there was anyone who would know the truth about Clark's origins it would have been Dr. Fate. Obviously they were wrong.

"I suggest that everyone get comfortable since this is going to take a bit of explaining," Clark told them.

Once they had all taken had taken a seat in a chair or were sitting on the edge of a table or desk in the room they were in, Clark began his explanation.

"As I said earlier, Krypton was a planet that circled a giant red sun in a constellation of stars whose zip code is 23 galaxies away from here. Krypton was a world with a much harsher environment than our own that had a gravitational force several times that of Earth. The planet's civilization survived the ups and downs of any society, but unlike the various civilizations of Earth the Kryptonians were able to maintain their cohesive identity as a single culture for more than 400,000. It was at this point that they entered their final golden age when they discovered the means to cross the vastness of the heavens in the blink of an eye.

"That discovery allowed Krypton to enter it greatest period of exploration and expansion. Over the more than 100,000 years that followed, the people of Krypton spread throughout the 28 galaxies they knew contained other sentient life forms. Seeking new worlds to settle upon, they built outposts and colonies on planets that circled other giant red stars. And before anyone asks, I can only say that they only chose to settle in star systems with suns the same as their own for what could best be called philosophical reasons.

"Now, when there were no habitable worlds circling these stars, they used great machines to reshape whole planetary environments to suit their needs. It was during this period that Krypton reached its zenith and the Kryptonians evolved into a race of virtual supermen whose mental and physical powers were developed to what they considered the absolute peak of perfection.

"It was during this age of exploration that a lone survey ship arrived at the furthest point that any vessel from Krypton had gone; a small backwater planet that revolved around a single yellow sun in a galaxy that held little interest to most Kryptonians. The man in charge of this particular expedition was Tur-Van who happened to be Krypton's leading geneticist of that day. He and his team arrived in our solar system about 40,000 years ago with the intent to use Earth's primitive inhabitants as test subjects in a series of genetic experiments combining the native DNA with Kryptonian DNA to see what effects it would have."

"Clark excuse the interruption," Tess began when just how long ago Clark was saying his people first came to Earth made something click in her head, "but that is about the time Cro-Magnon first appeared."

"Cro-Magnon?" Roy piped up. "That sounds familiar, but I can't place them? Who are they?"

"Cro-Magnon is the name scientists have given to the people who appeared in Europe more than 35,000 years ago and quickly replaced the Neanderthals," Alicia provided. Then seeing Roy's still slightly perplexed expression, she added, "Think of the Cro-Magnon as our earliest ancestors who eventually took over from an earlier group of cavemen."

"Oh, okay," Roy stated with an understanding nod of his head.

"From that, what you're suggesting Tess, is that Clark's ancestors are responsible for the coming of Cro-Magnon and leading to ourselves," Linda suggested putting into words what she had already concluded from what had been said.

"And she would be right," Clark proclaimed. "Tur-Van began introducing very tiny and select amounts of Kryptonian DNA into the population of Earth at that time. Tur-Van and his team remained here for nearly five years studying the first results of his experiments before returning to Krypton.

"The Van family had almost as long and as prestigious a history as my own. As such they were given a lot of leeway in doing things their way. That allowed them to keep Earth as their little family secret and private laboratory for the next 30,000 years or so. Regular expeditions were sent here every few hundred years to check on the progress of what Tur-Van had started. But, that all came to an end about 12,000 years ago due to technological and societal changes on Krypton, which also marked the beginning of Krypton's decline and eventual destruction. All of that was represented by the creation of the Genesis Chamber."

"Genesis Chamber?" Alicia asked. "Are talking about the creation of life?"

"Yes, the artificial and scientifically controlled creation of life," Clark replied. "At that time Krypton had achieved what they considered perfection. They had developed a society that barely even remembered what crime was and learned to control their very environment to suit their needs. It was at this point that they developed what they saw to be the means to insure that way of life by maintaining the genetic purity and perfection of their race at predetermined population level. It was for that reason that the Genesis Chamber was created.

"After that all Kryptonians were conceived in such chambers. Every child was designed to be perfect and perform a predetermined function within their society as a worker, a warrior, a leader, and so on. Through the final perfection of their race the Kryptonians extended their lifespan to well beyond a thousand years, eliminated virtually all diseases, and were able to maintain their population at a set level. Now that they were able to artificially control their population, Kryptonians no longer saw the need to expand into space to relieve their population problems.

"With the pressure of population under their control, Krypton abandoned its space exploration leaving its outpost and colonies on their own. The focus of the civilization now turned inward and slowly withdrew in on itself over the ensuing centuries. Science and technology still advanced, but at far slower, almost glacial, pace. The abandonment of their colonies also meant that Krypton was now completely dependent on only the resources within their own solar system to provide for all of their needs. After another 11,000 years, with their energy resources exhausted, Krypton's leaders began to harvest the planet's core for their energy."

"What do you mean by 'harvesting the planet's core'?" Chloe asked barely a moment before Alicia could voice the same question.

"Krypton's core was composed primarily of what we would call uranium," Clark provided.

"But draining a planet's energy in such a manner would be like not treating a small, slowly bleeding wound," Alicia espoused. "In time it would mean the death of the planet. Didn't anyone realize that?"

"My great-grandfather, Var-L..." Clark started to say.

"Var-L?" Jonathan queried.

"My Kryptonian family name is L," Clark provided.

"Sweety," Martha began, "do you know what your birth name is?"

"It's Kal-L, mom," Clark told her. "My parents were Jor-L and Lara Lor-Van."

"But why did they send you to Earth," Gabe asked speaking up for the first time.

"I believe that if we are patient, Clark will soon get to that part of the story," Marguerite Sullivan said in a calm voice.

"Thank you Aunt Margo," Clark said before continuing. "Like I said Var-L was the only voice on the Science Council that spoke out against the course of action that Krypton's Supreme Council had decided upon. Var-L's research showed him that harvesting the core would be at best a temporary fix, and if it continued for a prolonged period of time it would mean that Krypton would eventually tear itself apart by implosion. Instead, he had advocated for returning to the stars to provide for Krypton's needs. But as the lone voice of dissent on Supreme Council's advisory board, Var-L's concerns were dismissed and he was discounted as a crack-pot when his dire warnings didn't come to pass within the next couple of centuries.

"Not long after his disgrace, Var-L disappeared on one of his expeditions into the planet's hinterlands. Some say that he had been silenced by the Supreme Council, but no one could prove anything and in time most of Krypton forgot anything about it.

"For nearly eight hundred more years a precarious balance was maintained as the leaders of the planet continued to harvest more and more of the core. Eventually that balance was upset by the internal forces of the planet's core the Kryptonians could no longer control and marked the beginning of the end.

"Again, it was the House of L that raised the alarm. This time it was my father Jor-L who told of the coming calamities. My parents had long seen the erosion of Krypton's civilization for what it truly was and what its cause had been. It was for this reason that they decided to give birth to their child in a natural way, freeing me from any predetermined destiny of fitting a specific place in society with no say in the choice. I was the first natural born child on Krypton in more than four millennium and they named me Kal.

"Less than a week after my birth, General Dru Zod, Krypton's supreme military commander, led an attempted coup against the leadership of the Supreme Council. The coup was eventually put down with my father's help, but during first hours of the coup my parents launched me on my journey to Earth out of the concern that they might never be able to if Zod's revolt did succeed. General Zod was killed by my father during the fighting and his followers were condemned to the Phantom Zone.

"Less than a month later Krypton tore itself apart in a cataclysmic explosion as the planet imploded in on itself," Clark concluded.

"Clark, why haven't you ever told us any of this before," Jonathan asked.

"Because, up until a few months ago I didn't know myself," Clark admitted. "In their final moments, my parents launched another ship to Earth. Inside of it was what could be best described as a recording of all the knowledge of Krypton. For reasons I don't know that ship only arrived here on Earth this last June."

"That was just before you took your prolonged vacation, wasn't it?" Oliver asked.

"That's correct Oliver, and your unstated assumption that I was learning everything I could while I was gone for those three months would be correct," Clark told him with a brief smile as his thoughts briefly went back to that particular moment before continuing with his story.

"It was around 3 A.M. on June 14th when I was..."

"June 14th? Isn't that the date when that 'U.F.O.' was supposed to have crashed somewhere out in New Mexico," Jimmy asked interrupting Clark.

"You're right, Jimmy," Clark confirmed.

"So, something else came down that night that wasn't a weather balloon," Jimmy said.

"Not something else, Jimmy, along with," Clark told him. "As I was saying, I was sound asleep that morning when a piercing sound woke me up. It was unlike any sound I had ever heard and it wouldn't stop. So, I quickly changed flew up to the lower atmosphere to try and determine where exactly that signal was coming from. After a few moments I had figured out which direction it was from Metropolis and started following it. Within a few moments I found myself over northern New Mexico looking down at an obvious crash sight of some kind with various pieces of debris scattered over an area some 200 yards in diameter. Right in the middle of it all was the source of the signal; it was a small ship about eight feet in length that was shaped like an arrowhead. And on the front of it was the same symbol that is on the ship that first brought me to Earth, which is also the symbol I have always worn as part of my outfit. And while it looks like a stylized "S" it is in fact the crest of my Kryptonian family and it is the Kryptonian symbol for hope.

"But it was going to be little while before I learned that because at the time I could see moving away from the spot a set of tail lights that belonged to the rancher who had seen the whole mess come down and had gone out looking for it. Figuring that he was undoubtedly going to call the authorities and would eventually return with them I decided that I had to get that ship out of there before he came back. So, I landed and started to pick it up when the signal stopped the moment I touched it. Turns out that the signal I had been hearing was the equivalent of a burglar alarm that had gone off when someone other than myself had touched it; in this case the rancher on whose property this whole mess had landed.

"Since I knew that Mom and Dad were going to be in Washington at the time, I took the ship back to the farm in Smallville. Once I was there I finally had a chance to carefully look the ship over. That was when I activated a pre-recorded message stored in the ship by running my fingers over the emblem of my family that was engraved on the side of the ship. That message was feed directly into my mind and at the same time it taught me the language and history of Krypton. It also told me why my parents had chosen Earth rather another planet in this galaxy to send me to."

"From what you said earlier about who your mother was," Chloe said, "I'm guessing that she had access to her family's records about Earth and that was why they chose to send you here."

"And you would be correct, Chloe," Clark admitted. "But they also knew what effect our yellow sun would have on me as well."

Upon seeing their confusion, Clark continued, "Due to the nature of my Kryptonian physiology, my body processes the solar energy from our sun differently than a normal human would and stores it like a battery. It is the sun that gives me my abilities and the energy to use them. Under a red sun like Krypton had, physically I would be no different than any other Kryptonian."

"If that's true, then why didn't some of your mother's family not end up being recorded as the mythological gods of the Greeks and the Egyptians," Roy asked.

"In a roundabout way, Roy, that is exactly what happened," Clark said with a smile. "When Krypton as a whole began to abandon its colonies and outposts, the Van family didn't. They not only continued to send regular missions here to Earth, they established permanent presence here to continue their work and experiments. In time, the colony they established here on Earth was the last Kryptonian outpost left anywhere in the universe.

"Over the next 2,000 years the Kryptonians here on Earth began to take a more active role in guiding the race they had helped to create by acting as mentors while still continuing to experiment. They introduced minor differences in appearance amongst the parent race and scattered these new groups to different places around the world keeping each one of them separate from the other and from their parent race. It was their intent to see how these different groups would develop independently of each other while teaching the parent race the intricacies of mathematics, agriculture, and other basic sciences.

"It was also during this time that they created two specialized sub-species of human beings, Homo-Mermantis and Homo-Magi, who are still with us. Homo-Mermantis were created to help harvest the resources of the oceans and established underwater cities in various places around the world of their day. The Homo-Magi started as a chance mutation in a single child who developed the ability to wield energies that Kryptonians had never known existed. The Van family was fascinated by this phenomenon and studied the DNA of that child until they had isolated the specific gene sequence that allowed them to tap into those energies and began to pass it on to others amongst the parent race. One of them even tried to alter their own DNA in the same manner, but Kryptonian DNA was far too advanced to accept the change and that single attempt had lethal consequences.

"Eventually, a now very xenophobic Supreme Council of Krypton ordered the Van family to abandon their colony and return home, or face having the whole family being branded traitors and banished to the Phantom Zone. Within less than a year the colony was shut down and its members returned to Krypton. But before they left the final leader of the colony, Xus-Van built an automated monitoring system that would send reports of Earth's development back to Krypton on a regular basis.

"With the departure of their mentors, the parent race began to reach out to the other groups of humans whose emerging nations and civilizations were scattered across the globe. Their knowledge of astronomy and mathematics made them master navigators that allowed them to travel and map the entire world 4,000 years before the first pyramid rose in Egypt. For the next thousand years their mastery of the oceans allowed them to create a loose confederation of coastal city-states and nations as part of trading network that connected nearly all the people on the planet. Wherever they went they brought the knowledge they had been given to those less advanced. While there were those who led a nomadic existence further inland away from the coastal areas, a united world was created that enjoyed a level of peace and prosperity that the modern world has never known.

"Roy, to explain what I told you earlier, along with that knowledge that the parent race brought with they also told the tales of those who had brought it to them. Those tales were the basis of much of the mythology of the Egyptians, the Greeks, and just about every other culture. Like any truth that is handed down from generation to generation, a certain amount of embellishment is going to occur down through the years. That fact is what gives us the mythology that we know today, but whatever truth they were based on as been so diluted that it is practically invisible to anyone who looks for it."

"Clark, I hate to interrupt, but what you are saying is going against all known archeological evidence," Tess stated. "The first recognized civilization on Earth was the Mesopotamian nation of Sumer that began around 4000 B.C. What you are describing is antediluvian civilization that fits closer to Ignatius Donnelly's concept of Atlantis. If it ever did exist, no evidence has ever been found anywhere in the world to disprove what we know today to be fact."

"Tess, there is something to what Clark is saying," Margot Sullivan said. "There vague references in some of the oldest Homo-Magi teachings in my collection that mention a powerful civilization that existed to before the deluge that engulfed the world that was parent to all the people of this world."

"And you are 100% correct Tess," Clark admitted, "from a certain point of view. The establishment of Sumer is the first recorded civilization that has ever been found by modern man. But, that is because almost no one has been able to get to those places where the evidence does exist because it is either lies deep underwater and buried beneath a few hundred feet of silt, or is covered by several hundred feet of snow and ice. Nearly everything that they had created was destroyed by a single event that gave rise to ever great deluge story that has ever been told in every corner of the world."

"Exactly when did that happen, and what could have destroyed such a well established civilization without a trace," Alicia asked.

"In 7157 B.C., a large comet struck the planet that triggered a wave of devastation that changed the face of our world. The crust of the Earth sits upon the molten mantle that surrounds the core of the planet. Now, think of the mantle as being a layer of liquid lying between the crust and the core of the planet. The angle and speed of that comet impacting the Earth had so much force behind it hat it caused the crust to actually slide nearly 3,000 miles over the mantle. The impact and shifting of the crust created earthquakes and tidal waves that are nearly impossible for anyone to imagine, but in a matter of hours it wiped out all of the communities that were along the coasts and natural waterways.

"The large ice fields that had existed at both poles for more than 50,000 years were quickly melted by the fiery devastation the impact had also thrown into the atmosphere. It was this single event which abruptly ended the last ice age the planet had been going through at the time.

"The melting polar caps caused the level of the oceans to rise by more than 300 feet helping to finish the job of hiding whatever was left after the earthquakes and tidal waves. What few survivors there were eventually joined their nomadic cousins who had escaped the worst of the destruction because of their living away from the coastal areas and in the higher elevations. They tried to keep their knowledge alive, but in time even that faded first into memory and then into legend. It would be more than 3,000 years before man began to rise above a hunter-gatherer existence and by that time the tales and legends were seen as no more than that. Yet, somehow they did survive to become the basis for Plato's tales and description of what he called Atlantis," Clark concluded.

"Clark you said something about some the remains being buried under ice and snow," Tess mentioned. "Exactly what did you mean by that?"

"The parent race inhabited a continent that was nearly twice the size of modern Australia, and what we today call Antarctica," Clark stated. "The force of the comet's impact shifted it southward nearly 3,000 miles from where it had once been. Now, what little that remains of that civilization is buried under the snows and ice of Antarctica."

"Son, just how is it that you can know all of this if any physical evidence is buried and out of reach," Jonathan asked.

"The facility that Xus-Van set up before leaving for Krypton survived down through all these years faithfully recording everything that has occurred here on Earth," Clark explained.

"I would have thought that it would have been destroyed in the cataclysm brought on by the comet's impact," Alicia suggested.

"It probably would have if it had been on this planet. I'm just guessing here, but for some reason I gather your ancestor's outpost wasn't on Earth, was it Clark?" Oliver speculated.

"You're right Ollie," Clark admitted. "In fact there are two outposts that were built into a couple of the larger mountains on the moon. One of them is located on the light side of the moon and is dedicated to monitoring the Earth, and the other is on the dark side so it can it can stay focused on keeping an eye on things out in the solar system and beyond.

"Along with the messages in the ship I found in New Mexico, my parents provide me with the knowledge of where to find outposts and how to reach them from Earth. They also gave the means for me to update the facilities systems and information to the same level that Krypton had achieved just prior to its destruction. That was what I was doing for those three months that I was gone. I was getting both of those outposts on the moon up and running again so I could learn everything I could about Krypton. That is how I learned about what the Van family had started here on Earth and what had happened since they had been ordered home. Also in their records I found one entry that helped me to fully understand my powers and how to best make use of them."

"Well, that would explain some of the stories about the powers of a variety of legendary 'gods' in mythology," Roy said. When everyone looked at him, Roy continued, "Oh, come on! It makes perfect sense with members of Clark's race running around and openly using the powers they would have had for stories about them become part of the mythology of various cultures around the world."

"Normally you would be right, Roy," Clark said. "But there is something I didn't mention. You see in all of the years that there were Kryptonians here on Earth, only one of them ever discovered the fact that under a yellow sun we would have the powers I have."

"Clark, how is that even possible?" a slightly bewildered Chloe asked.

"It stems from Kryptonian religious practices of Raoism," Clark began. "Rao was not only the name of the star that Krypton orbited, but it was also the Kryptonian word for God. Like the monotheistic believes of Earth, all creation was due to Rao. And like the monotheistic religions of Earth, Rao had a collection of lesser deities who cared out his will.

"While scientific thought and religious belief seems to present a multitude of contradictions to the human mind, my ancestors didn't seem to have that problem. Kryptonians may have been very scientifically and technologically advanced, but they were also very religious as well. It was because their own red sun represented Rao that Kryptonians chose to only settle on planets that orbited a red sun. Anything else was seen sacrilege and heresy. It was for this reason that the Van family kept their research here on Earth a closely guarded secret.

"Now, to finally get to the point of all this, another tenant of Raoism was the wearing of a holy symbol that contained a Rao stone. This was done to show your reverence for Rao, and this was one tenant that everyone strictly followed. A Rao stone itself was a piece of light turquoise-colored crystal that for some reason suppresses my powers under the light of our yellow sun and renders me no different from any other member of my race as if we were back on Krypton under the effects of a red sun.

"In going through the records of my Van ancestors, I came across only one record dealing with the effects of a yellow sun upon a Kryptonian. That record showed that Zro-Van was the only member of whole Van family to ever study that phenomenon. Before Zro-Van's research everyone thought the assault upon their senses and strange feelings that their bodies were experiencing whenever they weren't wearing a Rao stone was Rao's punishment for removing his holy symbol while being in the presence of a sun that was not red. So, for that reason, no Kryptonian, except for one, ever really knew what they were capable of under the influence of a yellow sun.

"Zro-Van secretly conducted his own research for more than a hundred years to fully understand what exactly was going on. It was his research that has given me a complete understanding of how my powers work and how to use them to their fullest when needed," Clark said in conclusion.

"That all very interesting, Clark, and I can't begin to thank you for sharing that with me," Tess said. "But how exactly does that have any bearing on our problem with finding Lex?"

"It is really very simple," Clark began. "We've encountered the Ultra-Humanite robots before; that is why I was able to recognize who had made the robot that replaced Lex. The one thing I didn't know until now was that they were all based upon Kryptonian technology. The only possibility that I can think of is that the Humanite is the one who discovered one the remaining Kryptonian outposts near Stefansson Bay in Antarctica nearly 150 years ago."

Upon seeing the questioning looks from his audience, Clark began to explain, "Once I had the two moon bases up and running again, I used the records in their information systems to locate any Kryptonian outposts here on Earth that might have survived the devastation of the comet's impact. Like I mentioned, I discovered one of those facilities at Stefansson Bay that had been badly damaged but was still somewhat functional. When I scanned some of the information in its recording system I saw that it had last been accessed on September 29th, 1811. A single human male accidently triggered one of the machines my ancestors used to affect human DNA. This particular individual had his mental abilities greatly enhanced along with having massive amounts of Kryptonian knowledge planted directly into his brain. The machine also greatly extended his life while making him more resistant to physical damage and immune to any known disease. I'm afraid that this is when and how the person we know as the Ultra-Humanite was created. And that Kryptonian scientific knowledge that he received during his transformation has allowed him create robots that are indistinguishable from their human counterparts by any normal means of identification.

"Now, as to what all of this has to do with Lex's disappearance, I identified a baker's dozen of possible sites where Kryptonian bases might still be. I've visited twelve of them. I had conceded that the final one was probably lost to me, but now I'm thinking that it does exist and the Ultra-Humanite is using it as his main base of operation. Somehow he has found some means of camouflaging it so I can't detect it," Clark concluded.

"If you haven't found it so far and admit that you probably won't be able to find it using your heightened senses," Tess began. "Just how do you plan on accomplishing that?"

"We're going to try two different approaches, Tess," Clark replied. "First, I was planning on asking Chloe and Aunt Margo to try and sniff out the location using the skills that they are best at."

"And your second option?"

"I thought we would go and talk with the last person to see Lex alive," Clark stated.

"And just who might that be?" Tess asked.

"It shouldn't come as much of surprise, Tess," Chloe responded in an amused tone, "just another distant relation of ours."


	12. Secrets and Suspicious Minds Chapter 12

**Chapter 12**

"_I thought we would go and talk with the last person to see Lex alive," Clark stated._

"_And just who might that be?" Tess asked._

"_It shouldn't come as much of a surprise, Tess," Chloe responded in an amused tone. "Just another distant relation of ours."_

"In this case, it happens to be a British cousin," Clark added.

"That still doesn't tell me who," Tess said becoming a tad irritated at this little game Clark and Chloe seemed to be playing.

Chloe gave Clark a look, and after a shrug of his shoulders, she told Tess, "The Viscountess Fauconberg."

"Patricia Neville?" a surprised Tess exclaimed.

"The one in the same," Clark confirmed. "She and Lex met in London in 1943 after he had gotten away from the Russians and there was an immediate attraction between the two of them. I suspect that the two of them probably would've eventually gotten married if Lana had not entered the picture when Lex returned to the States shortly after that.

"Come to think of it, Patricia's appearance in Metropolis was rather surprisingly well timed. I know for a fact that Lex had not told anyone about his suspicions concerning Lana' infidelity. She showed up the day before the flight and was with Lex the morning before he left on his flight here to Starling City. And if memory serves me, she went with him into of the offices in the terminal to say goodbye and didn't come out with him. He mentioned that she was planning on returning to England since she had some business there that she had to take care of for her father."

"What are your plans for you and Tess getting to England," Linda asked.

"Since Lex was flying the Mark 3 prototype of the Jetstar, I was sort of figuring on using the Mark 2," Clark simply stated. "You can't deny, that even with Lana's confession and the proof of sabotage that I know that we are going to find, it is going to take some sort of demonstration to show everyone that the Jetstar is everything that it has been advertised to be, and the sooner the better. Wouldn't you agree that by me and Tess taking it to London it will be a good step forward in re-establishing some confidence in the design?"

"Of course it would, but don't you think that might have thought of asking Tess about it first," Oliver replied.

"He already did, Oliver," Tess stated. "Clark suggested it to me earlier this morning on the train before we arrived. We were already planning of taking the Mark 2 back to Metropolis. Now, we'll just plan on adding an extra leg to our journey."

"You won't have to add an extra leg, Tess," Linda said. "We just finished installing the upgraded engines and fuel system on the Mark 2 a couple of days ago. Naturally it hasn't been tested yet, but I figure that those improvements should give it an extended range of approximately 8,500 miles. So, you and Clark should have no problem making London on one tank of gas."

"Tess, do you think the FJL would be willing to help us if and when we have to openly confront the Humanite?" Clark asked as he turned to Tess after giving his sister a nod of acknowledgment.

"I would be very surprised and disappointed if they didn't," Tess replied. "At the very least, I'm sure the former members of the JSA and All-Star Squadron will be more than happy to have another crack at the Humanite. I'll send a telegram to Danette to meet us in London."

"In that case," Clark said as he looked at his brother-in-law, "Oliver, would you like to have another shot at getting your car back?"

"Just what do you have in mind?"

"I was thinking about a race," Clark began to explain as he glanced first at his sister and then her husband. "Linda, what do think about you and Oliver taking the X-9 on its maiden flight to London in the morning? Tess and I will take the Jetstar and go east while you and Oliver go west in the X-9; how does that sound?"

"I like it. We wrapped up the final test flights two weeks ago. I think the lady is more than ready step out of the shadows and into the light for her public debut," Linda said with infectious grin. "I'll be sure that the crews have her prepped and ready for a sunrise take-off."

At the mention of the X-9 Tess' eyebrows rose a bit in surprise. She knew from a memo from Lex something about a proposed supersonic prototype that was being considered as a test bed for a line of next generation bomber and transport aircraft. Either Lex didn't how much progress had been made on the X-9 (which Tess found to be highly unlikely), or he had been playing that hand very close to the vest since the X-9 supersonic aircraft project had obviously already created a working prototype that was ready for its public maiden flight.

"Alright, that's settled," Clark stated before turning to his parents. "Mom and Dad, I'm afraid that is going to leave one of the most precarious assignments to the two of you, watching your grandkids while I have their folks out traipsing around the world."

"Of course, son," Jonathan stated. "We were going to be staying the whole week anyway."

"I hope it won't be any longer than that," Clark said before turning to the others. "I believe that we now have several different things that we need to follow-up on. Uncle Gabe, would you, Aunt Margo and Chloe please go back to Metropolis and retrace Lex's movements up until he boarded his plane. I need you to do that voodoo that all of you do so well to see what you can find out exactly what happened to Lex before he got on that plane. We are going to need all the information we can get with the Ultra-Humanite involved."

"We would be happy to," Gabe replied. "We'll be on this evening's Express back to Metropolis."

"Thank you," Clark stated before turning to look at Alicia and Jimmy. "Obviously, the two of you can guess what it is that I'm going to ask of you. I want the both of you to be on the Express tonight as well. I need the two of you stay on top of things in Metropolis while we're gone."

"Sure thing Clark," Jimmy said with his trademark grin.

"Be happy to," Alicia agreed.

"Thanks, guys," Clark said with a nod of gratitude. "But there is one other thing I need to ask of you."

"What's that Clark," Alicia inquired.

"I want one of you check the library archives for any references about people being rescued in Antarctica during the early years of the nineteenth century," Clark asked of his two friends.

"We'll put it on our 'to do' list," Jimmy assured him.

"Clark, I thought you had memorized everything in the Metropolis Library?" Oliver asked.

"That was nearly ten years ago when we were at Met U, Ollie," Clark replied. "I know that early in the war the Metropolis Library was one of the places that a lot of British naval records and archives were stored. I've never gotten around to perusing them and they are still there. I'm hoping that there might be something there that might give us a lead on the Humanite's real identity. So, I would suggest that you start with those particular records," Clark suggested to Alicia and Jimmy.

"Right-O, Guvn'r," Jimmy acknowledged with a slightly cheesy, Cockney accent.

Clark just shook his head at Jimmy's antic with a smile before looking at Roy. "Roy, will you be okay on keeping an eye on things for a few days here in Starling City?"

"I'll be okay," Roy replied. "As long as you promise that I'll be there when whatever goes down with the Humanite gets started?"

"You have my word, Roy," Clark told him. "Alicia will be sure to have you there in time since I know that neither her or Jimmy would want to be left out as well. Also, if you do need any help, be sure to get in touch with her. She will be able to be there with Jimmy in a matter of moments."

"Alright, since that's settled and we seem to we have something of plan, we might as well get started," Oliver suggested. "And I think the first order of business is going to be giving those reporters outside something to keep them happy. As our fearless leader, do you want to do the honors Clark?"

Clark let out a small groan as he rolled his eyes heavenward before heading toward the door. The rest of the group was smiling or chuckling at Clark's reaction as they fell in behind him while a grinning Tess took his arm in hers to show her support. By the time Clark was reaching for the handle of the door Chloe had already dropped her spell so when Clark began to address the assembled reporters it seemed to them that barely five minutes had passed.

"Good afternoon. I've been asked by Miss Mercier to make a statement on the events of today and what led up to them…"

**November 19th, 1947, 7:06 A.M. (P.S.T.)**

**Queen Aerospace (formerly Ferris Aircraft)**

**12 miles along the coast north of Starling City**

The first rays of the morning sun were just beginning to peek over the edge of the mountains to the east when the large doors of Hanger #2 began to rumble open. The sound alerted to the waiting reporters that the morning's activities were about to begin. Yesterday afternoon they had been told by Clark Kent that he and the head of Luthor Corp. were going to be taking up another of the Jetstar prototypes to prove to the world the air worthiness of the aircraft. Unlike the tragic flight of the first Jetstar piloted by Lex Luthor, Kent and Mercier were going to be going further and faster. Their flight plan called for a non-stop flight from Starling City to London in just under eight hours. Most of them were there to see if history was going to repeat itself, and all of them were curious by Kent's suggestion that they stick around after the Jetstar had departed. It seemed that he and Oliver had made some sort of wager on who was going to get to London first. That meant that Oliver Queen was going to be flying some other aircraft which only piqued everyone's curiosity.

Moments after the hanger doors had opened far enough; Queen Industries' workers began towing the Jetstar Mark II out to the flight line. The plane itself was nearly a hundred feet in length with a swept wing span of the same dimension with upturned wingtips. The two turbojet engines were attached at the rear of the white fuselage just forward of the tail assembly which rose to a height of just over twenty-five feet. On the tail just above the engine pods was painted "QJ-02".

Once the Jetstar was in position, the ground crew began quickly preparing the aircraft for departure. A few minutes later a small group of people emerged from Hanger #2 headed towards the plane. The group included Clark Kent, Tess Mercier, Oliver and Linda Queen, as well as Sen. and Mrs. Kent. It was easily noted by the reporters present that Clark Kent, as well as Oliver and Linda Queen, were all wearing leather flight jackets. Clark and Oliver were wearing their old jackets from their days with the Flying Tigers, while Linda was wearing her Blackhawk jacket. After pausing a few moments for a photographer to snap the customary pictures for such an event, the six people at the bottom of the boarding steps exchanged their farewells in the forms of handshakes, hugs and quick kisses.

Once the little farewell ceremony was accomplished, Clark ushered Tess up the steps and into the Jetstar before closing and securing the airplane's door. Within moments everyone heard the first of the two engines begin to turn over. A couple of minutes later the pitch of the engines increased and the Jetstar began to move onto the taxiway headed towards the end of the runway. Upon reaching the runway threshold, Clark set the brakes and revved the engines to maximum.

The point of their departure was to make a statement about the abilities and creditability of the Jetstar, and that was what he was going to do. After the engines had reached their maximum r.p.m.'s for nearly thirty seconds, Clark released the brakes and the Jetstar began rolling. A little more than a third of the way down the 15,000 foot long runway, Clark pulled back on the controls and the Jetstar became airborne as it entered a 30-degree climb into the cloudless sky. A minute later Clark leveled out at 4,000 feet. Less than a minute after that, the Jetstar entered a fast descending turn that would place them on an easterly course back towards the airfield.

By the time they returned to the airfield, Clark had the Jetstar flying at a speed of 680 M.P.H. at a height of 300 feet. As he reached the end of the runway, Clark began performing a precision six-point barrel roll, holding each point of the roll for a couple of seconds. Then as he once again brought the plane level, Clark again pulled back on the controls. This time he pulled them further back than before as he pushed the engine throttles to maximum. Climbing at a sixty-degree angle of ascent, the Jetstar was quickly lost in the sun that was now fully risen in the east.

As soon as the Jetstar disappeared into the sun the crowd of reporters and onlookers became aware of the sound of more engines starting up, but these were muffled. At least they were until the doors of hanger #8, the largest on the field, began to open at which time the noise became six fold. Emerging from the confines of the hanger was the needle like noise of one of the largest airplanes any of them at ever seen. Once it had finally emerged from its hanger, everyone began snapping pictures of the immense delta-winged aircraft that measured nearly 200 feet in length. The largest part of the delta wing measured a bit more than a hundred feet at the rear of the plane, and the area of the delta wing extended for more than two-thirds of the plane's length. The fuselage was long and graceful with most of it merged into the delta wing that gave the plane its lift. Just behind the plane's access hatch was a pair of smaller wings on each side of the fuselage which tapered down to a sharp point at the front of the aircraft. On the dual tail control surfaces that rose from the delta wing was the plane's identifying marks of "QX-09".

The X-9 never slowed down as the proceeded directly to the taxiway. As it passed the gathered members of the media it was clear to everyone watching that the person sitting in the left-hand pilot's seat was Linda Queen herself. At the runway's threshold the X-9 didn't hesitate for a moment as Linda advanced the eight engine throttles to full and the plane quickly began gathering speed. About the four-fifths of the way down the runway the X-9 lifted gracefully and effortlessly into the air. Once clear of the runway and out over the Pacific, Linda cut in the afterburners and the X-9 rocketed into the heavens. As the plane quickly receded in the distance a muffled boom reached back to those gathered on the airfield as the X-9 broke the sound barrier and continued accelerating.

Little more than two and a half hours later Linda banked the X-9 over Tokyo as she turned the plane on its next leg that took it in the direction of Kabul. Once they were lined up for their next leg Linda turned the controls over to Oliver in the co-pilot's seat. Approximately two hours later Oliver was flying the X-9 from the co-pilot's chair when he slowly turned the X-9 to the right over Kabul as he lined them up on their course towards Tehran.

**At that moment, somewhere out over the Atlantic Ocean, approximately 150 miles south of Halifax, Nova Scotia…**

After the Jetstar had climbed to its cruising altitude and Clark had set the plane on autopilot, he and Tess had spent the next several hours discussing the various events of his life. Clark told her everything about his origins and the events of his life; he held nothing back. He even told her about what he had learned from Tarantis about the fate of Lori Lemaris and the fact that he was the father of twins. This fact was something that he had told no one else, not even Chloe, even though Clark figured that somehow Chloe would get wind of it at some point as Dr. Fate.

When that subject matter had run its course, Tess felt that it was time that she brought up some of the details about her connection to the FJL.

"Clark, there is something I need to tell you about me and the FJL," Tess began.

"What would that be," Clark responded even though he had a good idea just what it was she was going to tell him.

"The fact that in addition to everything else I am the leader of the FJL, La Sirène," Tess admitted. Then, noting the lack of surprise of any kind from Clark at her announcement, she added in a somewhat accusatory tone, "Or did you already know that?"

"Yes, I did know," Clark confessed.

"The first obvious question has to be when did you know?"" Tess asked.

"Less than fifteen seconds after I got over the shock that my one true love had just walked through my door and back into my life," Clark stated as he favored Tess with a grin and an adoring look that caused her to blush a bit.

"Alright, how?"

"I'm sure that you have heard stories about just how good my enhanced senses are," Clark began, and then continued when Tess gave a nod of acknowledgment. "Since your powers are based on your ability to control and emit sonic energy, your body gives off a vibration/sound that is unique to just yourself. Only someone with a heightened hearing ability would even be able to detect that. Add that to the fact that I have what could be called an eidetic memory which includes our meeting during the war, so when I realized that you were giving off a distinctive sound when you entered my office it only took me a moment to recognize it and remember the last time I had heard it."

"Okay," Tess said accepting Clark's explanation, "why didn't you say anything to me or the others about it?"

"Tess, as you know those of us who have taken on the responsibility of being the guardians of our society, our anonymity is what protects the people who are dearest to us. That is information that is precious and not easily shared. It wasn't my place to say anything until you were ready to do it yourself."

After a few moments of silence, Tess said, "I figured it was something like that. I would have done the same thing if I were in your place."

As she turned towards Clark after her last statement she noticed that he was glancing at his watch for a moment before reaching over and turning off the auto-pilot. After a slight adjustment to their course lining them up for their next landfall, which would be Penzance on the southwestern tip of England, Clark turned it back on.

Once the plane had settled onto its new course, Tess remembered that there was something she had been wanting to ask Clark. "Clark, that bet you made with Oliver about getting his car back, just what is the story behind that?"

Clark couldn't help the little smirk that came to his lips as he thought about the long running rivalry between him and Oliver. "You remember my Packard we were in the other day?"

After Tess acknowledged that she did with a nod of her head, Clark continued, "That used to belong to Oliver. Eight years ago I when I was in the final weeks of my flight training at Pensacola, Oliver turned up driving his brand new Packard 12 Convertible and staying in the penthouse of the San Carlos Hotel. Well, Oliver being Oliver, he threw a party for me and some of my friends which led to a poker game getting started. In the past Oliver had always cleaned my clock whenever we played cards, but by then my skills had been sharpened and Oliver paid the price. We were playing table stakes and Oliver found himself in the unaccustomed position of losing. It came down to the final pot and Oliver was tapped out of cash. The only thing he had left was the keys to the Packard. He was so confident of his hand that he tossed them into the pot and ended up losing it to me.

"Then after he and Linda were married and he learned the truth about me, he accused me of using my abilities to beat him. Since then he has badgered and cajoled me three or four times a year into some kind of bet in an effort to get the Packard back from me."

"If you have won every time, what did it cost Oliver for losing," Tess was curious to know.

"What had been in the pot that night, $2,000.00," Clark said with a satisfied smile. "Over the last four years Oliver has lost $28,000.00 to me trying to get that car back."

"If he is the one that always proposed the bets, why did you make this one?" Tess inquired.

"In all honesty, I have loved having the Packard, but I feel that its time I got something different," Clark admitted. "And I knew that short of some sort of mechanical failure, the X-9 should beat us to London by at least thirty minutes, and probably more if I know my sister.""

"So, you intentionally want to lose your bet with Oliver," Tess gathered.

"That would be correct," Clark confirmed. "Was there anything else I could help you with?""

"As a matter of fact there are a few things I was hoping you might clear up for me," Tess said. "Yesterday you said that Alicia was Miss Cosmos and formerly been Miss America. What exactly is the story behind that?"

"Alicia's story begins in the summer of 1941," Clark began. "She was working as an assistant to. . ." (see chapter 9 for the details of Alicia's origin story)

**In the airspace over Afghanistan**

A little more than four and a half hours after leaving Starling City the X-9 was approaching Kabul and Weng Chang (Linda's only surviving Blackhawk comrade had taken Linda's place in the left hand seat an hour earlier. After the plane had passed over the city, Oliver turned control the aircraft to Weng who then made a slight course correction and lined the aircraft up on its next leg that would take it to first Tehran and then to Istanbul, where they would begin their final leg that would take them to London.

**Somewhere of the over the Atlantic,**

After Clark had completed his telling of how Alicia had acquired her powers, he couldn't help but ask, "Tess, since we seem to be sharing stories of how we and our friends came by their abilities, would you mind telling me how you got yours?"

When Tess got a slight look of sorrow in her eyes, Clark knew that what he had asked was the reason for the sadness that she was remembering. "This has something to do with your mother's death," Clark guessed. When Tess gave a brief nod of her head, Clark responded, "I'm sorry Tess. If you don't want to talk about it I'll understand."

"No, Clark, it's okay," Tess said as she placed her hand on his as a sign of reassurance. After a moment she continued, "You're right, it did start the night my mother was killed in January of 1941. The bomb that killed her lodged a piece of shrapnel in my throat that severely damaged my vocal chords and nearly killed me."

Once she had said those words, Clark couldn't help himself as he examined Tess' throat, which didn't have a blemish on it.

"Well who ever that surgeon was he did a fantastic job," Clark remarked. "I don't see any indication of a scar anywhere."

"And you won't find one," Tess replied. "It was only because of a radical procedure done by a brilliant surgeon that my father found that saved my life. The procedure was a two-stage process. The first involved surgery to remove the bomb fragment and repair her vocal chords. It was the second part that was the radical part of the procedure. It was an unheard of technique of applying a form of healing and vitality energy focused through a unique crystal to complete the process. When it was done, not only was I able to talk once again, but there was no trace of a scar on my neck from the surgery. It would not be for nearly another two years before I came to discover that the whole process had done more than just restore my ability to talk again.

"After my recovery was complete, I began to help my father with running the family businesses since I was unable to indulge in my real love, marine biology, while the war was going on. Over the next two and half years I learned firsthand what it took to run a corporation with the varied interests that made up Mercier AG. My ability put my father's mind to rest about the future of his company.

"Then, in early 1943, I was on her way home late one night from a party of some friends of hers when she experienced some car trouble on her way back into Basel. The first car that came along was filled with some drunk soldiers returning to their post. When they got out their car I thought they were going to help, but before I realized what was happening, the soldiers began to try and rape me. At least that was their plan until I screamed when they tore my dress in their drunken enthusiasm to undress me. My scream unleashed and assault of sonic waves that stunned the soldiers into unconsciousness as their ears began to bled. It also shattered the glass in the windows of both cars and rendered both of them inoperable.

"The next day my father called in Dr. Emil Hamilton, one the various scientists that worked for Mercier AG, to examine me to discover just what was going on. Emil's investigation showed that the surgery done on me in 1941 had somehow given me the ability to generate and project sounds that no normal human could produce. Over the next six months I worked with Emil to discover just what was capable of. That led to me learning how to not only focus my power to damage whatever I projected it at, but also how to stun and immobilize people, how to pitch my voice in such a way as to make individuals susceptible to my suggestions, how to project sound waves in such a manner as to enable to me fly, and how to neutralize electronic devices of all sorts.

"During this time I also began receiving training in hand-to-hand combat, firearms, and variety of melee and missile weapons. I also began a rigorous physical training regimen to strength my body and sharpen my reflexes. When I was done I became La Sirène (The Siren) and was one of the founding members of the La Fraternité de Justice et Liberté (a.k.a. The Brotherhood of Justice and Freedom. I guess what you would call a European equivalent of the Justice Society. In the final days of the war, all of us in the FJL were so proud to be working so closely with the All-Star Squadron to bring an end to war as quickly as possible. And that, of course, was how I met you for the first time as Superman.

"That you know about me," Tess with a smile, "would you mind telling me about Jimmy. I would never have guessed that Jimmy was the Blazing Skull. I don't really know that much about the Blazing Skull other than the fact that he showed up in the closing days of the war and promptly disappeared a few months later when that idiotic Heroes Registration Act became law at the beginning of the 1946."

"Well, like a lot of people, Jimmy's story started when war was declared," Clark began. "Jimmy volunteered for the Army in 1942 after he had graduated from high school and was accepted. Because of a little influence peddling done by my father, at Chloe's request, after Jimmy completed his Basic Training he was assigned to work as a Combat Photographer for the Army's Public Relations office in the War Department in Washington, D.C. As a Combat Photographer Jimmy participated in every major landing and many of the battles that the army took part in as they fought their way across North Africa and mainland Europe.

"By early 1944 Jimmy had received a field commission as a 2nd Lieutenant and was in England working for the Army as a war correspondent covering the build-up and training for the coming invasion. That was when I introduced Jimmy to Alicia Baker. Alicia and I had just finished missions for the All-Star Squadron and were in London preparing for our next mission together that was going to take us into Sweden and occupied Norway. At a USO club, I spotted Jimmy from across the room and waved him over to our table and introduced the two of them to each other. I knew that they were instantly infatuated with each other and have been so ever since.

"Now, during the last days of the fighting in Europe, Alicia was presumed dead after she sacrificed herself to save her fellow heroes of the All-Star Squadron from a deathtrap set by the Ultra Humanite in a secret facility hidden inside a Bavarian alp. The trap was part of a facility that the Nazis had been conducting atomic research in. The Ultra Humanite had altered the atomic reactor in the underground facility to go super critical once the heroes were trapped in the lead-lined chamber directly above it. Once the trap had been sprung there was no way to shut it down and only Alicia knew that she had the ability to save her friends. Using her abilities, she absorbed all of the energy being released from the reactor into herself. Knowing that there was no way she would be able to contain that much energy for long, Alicia used a portion of the power to blow a hole through the side of the chamber and the nearly 1500 feet of the mountain they were inside. With a way to escape open to her friends, Alicia teleported herself beyond Earth's atmosphere and more than halfway to the moon where she released all of the absorbed energy in a mighty blast that scattered the molecules that made up her body across the gulf between the Earth and the moon.

"The news of Alicia's sacrifice devastated Jimmy. In an effort to help him deal with it, I asked my dad to use his influence to have the War Department reassign Jimmy to the Pacific in the hope that work in a completely different locale would help get Jimmy's mind off his loss. A couple of weeks later Jimmy received new orders promoting him to 1st Lieutenant and assigning him to the China-Burma-India (CBI) Theatre of operations.

"The night before he left for the CBI, Jimmy was having a drink with me and he began talking about Alicia and his experiences in Europe and Africa. The talk we had went on throughout the night and didn't end until several hours into the following morning shortly before he was due to get on his plane.

"Jimmy told me later our little discussion was very therapeutic for him. He said that it finally gave him a chance to come to terms with his grief," Clark said with a thoughtful expression on his face. "Then, a week later, Jimmy was reported missing when the C-54 aircraft he was on disappeared in a storm while crossing "The Hump" from India to China."

"While he might have gone missing and all of us were afraid that he was dead since Chloe as Dr. Fate could not sense him anywhere, Jimmy was most definitely among the living," Clark told Tess. "He later told us that his plane had encountered an unexpected storm and its strong down draughts had caused the aircraft plane to crash in a remote and lost valley in the Himalayas. Jimmy was the only one to survive the crash and he had been badly injured. He would have died in the storm that had brought down the C-54 if he had not taken shelter in a strange structure that he discovered nearby.

"What Jimmy didn't know at the time was that he had discovered the final resting place of a mystical race of beings that in ancient times had been known as Khopari purusom, which roughly translates from Hindi as "Skull-Men"."

"Clark, sorry to interrupt, but if Jimmy was in a mystical location, how come Chloe couldn't sense him," Tess inquired.

"I asked Chloe that myself after Jimmy got back and told us what had happened," Clark explained. "It seems that the Khopari purusom had used a portion of their mystical energies to shield the valley from detection of any kind, and that was what had kept Dr. Fate from being able to find Jimmy."

"I was just curious," Tess said with small smile.

"Very understandable," Clark replied with smile of his own before he continued. "During Jimmy's talk with us he explained that the Khopari purusom had been a group of interdimensional guardians of hope and justice that had come to Earth from a mystical dimension shortly after the end of the last Ice Age. They had come here to oppose a great Darkness from Beyond our world. For more than a thousand years these two forces clashed until the Khopari purusom proved victorious. Yet, their victory came at a price; their physical bodies were destroyed and the essence of their spirits were restricted to the confines of the structure that had been their home upon our world.

"The essences of those collective spirits that had survived all these eons sensed that the first person to ever penetrate their valley had been sent by the forces of destiny to be their new champion in the continuing struggle for freedom and justice. As the spirits began to swirl about Jimmy's unconscious form they could feel that he was a good and worthy individual with a pure heart who had his own untapped potential within himself. For that reason they knew that this was their one chance to once again fight for the values that had guided them so long ago in confronting the threat that the forces of Darkness continually endangered the world.

"Surrounding him with a cocoon their combined energy, the spirits of the Khopari purusom taught Jimmy all of their ways and knowledge as he slept for the next month. When they were done the last of the spirits past beyond this existence. Jimmy awoke to find himself restored to complete health and bestowed with a variety of powers based on their burning desire to see justice done in the world.

"For another month Jimmy remained in the valley honing his skills and control of the powers that had been given to him. Those powers included enhanced strength (enough to lift and throw a fully loaded tank), a regenerative healing ability, the ability to turn his flesh invisible (but not his bones giving him the appearance of a walking skeleton, immunity to fire, the ability to generate, control and project flames, the ability to instantly change into his Khopari purusom, or Skull-Man form, and the ability to survive within any environment. After practicing with his ability to generate and project flames Jimmy learned how to fly at speeds of more than 800 m.p.h.

"In the early days of August, Jimmy was ready to return to the world outside of the valley that had been his home for the last two months. Using his new abilities, Jimmy was able to gain the attention of a passing aircraft of the Air Transport Command (ATC). Within a couple of days a rescue operation had plucked him from the valley he was in and Jimmy was enjoying a cold beer at the Officer's Club at the Kunming Airfield when news of the A-bomb being dropped on Hiroshima was flashed around the world. He was still in Kunming being debriefed by me when the news of Nagasaki's destruction was announced, as well as the news that Miss America had been spotted in the airspace over Nagasaki moments after the A-bomb had gone off by one of the trailing B-29s that was filming the drop.

"Needless to say, since Alicia and Jimmy's return to world of the living coincided with the war officially coming to an end, all of us were overjoyed," Clark stated. "Once he got back to Metropolis after his discharge, Jimmy started working at the Planet again while continuing to work on his degree in the new field of Photo-Journalism at Met U. At the same time, he also began working with the JSA as the Blazing Skull. Like most of us, his career with the JSA cut short with the enactment of the Heroes Registration Act in early 1946. Since then Jimmy has continued to work as the Blazing Skull like the rest of us, from the shadows since all of us refused to reveal our identity as called for by the HRA. As of right now, Jimmy has only another semester next spring to finish his degree. After he graduates Perry White has already promised him a job at the Daily Planet as their first Photo-Journalist. Once that happens he is planning on getting Alicia to finally set a date for them to be married."

"Are he and Alicia going to be able to make it on what they'll be making?" Tess asked.

A bit of a sly smile appeared on Clark's lips before he responded, "I pay Alicia a very good salary as my assistant, but she also has her source of the income from the articles and stories she writes herself. And Jimmy has found himself rather flush with cash since he got back."

"And just how did that happen?"

"Well," Clark replied, "after Jimmy went missing, in way of tribute to him, I was inspired to write a book based on that long talk we had before he left for the Pacific. For once my muse was constantly whispering in my ear and I was able to pound out the new book in a matter of a couple of weeks with the title _'Through the Eye of War',_ which went on to become a bestseller."

"And that was the one that won you your Pulitzer for Literature," Tess added.

"Exactly," Clark confirmed. "And I have split everything I have earned from that book equally with Jimmy. So he has been getting payments from the publisher for the sale of the book. I gave him half of the Pulitzer award money, as well as half of what Monarch Studios paid me for the movie rights to the book."

"Monarch Studios?" Tess exclaimed. "That's one of the company's owned by Luthor Enterprises!"

"Of course," Clark said in a mockingly surprised tone. "Did you really think I wouldn't give Lex first shot at it did you? But part of the deal with Monarch for a percentage of the gross was that I would adapt the book into a screenplay."

"If memory serves, didn't "Through the Eye of War" win several Oscars last year, including Best Screenplay?"

"And you would be correct," Clark with a slight smile of satisfaction as he turned his attention back to the instrument dials on the control panel. After looking at the fuel gauges for a few moments, Clark slid the throttles forward a notch before he began to climb out of his seat. "We're about two and a half, maybe three hours from London. So, if you'll keep an eye on things for a moment, I'll go rustle up something for us to eat. I'm pretty sure that Ollie had his people put something aboard this crate for us to eat."

"Thanks," Tess stated. "I am getting a bit hungry."

**In Turkish airspace approaching the Dardanelles,**

An hour or so later, approximately five hours and forty-five minutes into their flight, Weng Chang (Linda's only surviving Blackhawk comrade) was being relieved by Linda as they were approaching Istanbul and preparing for the last leg of their flight that would take them to London. When she was settled once again in the captain's seat, Linda looked over at Oliver and asked, "How much fuel do we have left?"

After taking a moment to look at the fuel gauges, Oliver did some quick math in his head and came up with an answer of, "Enough for at least four more hours of flying time at current speed; perhaps as much as five."

"Good," Linda said in tone of voice that made Oliver stop and look at his wife very carefully.

"And why is that a 'Good' thing?" Oliver inquired.

"Listen and find out," she responded before keying the mike of her radio headset. "Istanbul Tower this is Quebec X-ray Zero Niner."

"This Istanbul Tower, go ahead Quebec X-ray Zero Niner."

"Istanbul Tower, Quebec X-ray Zero Niner is requesting official time check and that it be recorded in your tower log."

"Roger, Quebec X-ray Zero Niner. Standby for official time check."

"Quebec X-ray Zero Niner, Standing by Istanbul Tower."

Several moments later, "Quebec X-ray Zero Niner, this is Istanbul Tower."

"Go ahead Istanbul Tower."

"Quebec X-ray Zero Niner, on my mark the local time will be exactly 2313 ZULU. 5… 4… 3… 2… 1…Mark."

At the end of the countdown, Linda touched the necessary button on her chronograph to start it keeping track of their flight on this last leg of their trip. Once that was done she immediately reached over and advanced the throttles to full power which caused Oliver to look at his wife with a lifted eyebrow questioning her decision to increase their speed to just over Mach 3.

"Roger Istanbul Tower, Quebec X-ray Zero Niner turning on to new heading for London. Leaving your control space Istanbul Tower, and thank you."

"Roger, Quebec X-ray Zero Niner. Have a pleasant flight. Istanbul Tower, Out."

"I know that you have already this baby up to Mach 3 for a few minutes," Ollie began. "But do you think it's such a good idea to run them for as long as it is going to take us to get London?"

After making the needed course change, Linda looked over at her husband and responded, "We need to find out just out much stress these engines can really take. This way we get to find out and the world gets to see us to do it. That is part of what this whole thing is about, isn't it? Besides, I thought you wanted to get to London before Clark."

"You know I do."

"Well, so do I," Linda stated with a determined look. "I'm getting tired of you losing to him all of the time whenever you two make a bet. This is the one time that I'm sure that we are going to beat him, but I don't see any reason for taking any chances. Also, I want this whole competition between the two of you to finally be over. My mom has gotten tired of the whole thing, and so have I."

With a short laugh, Oliver smiled at his wife before returning his attention to the instruments in front of him and concentrated on the rest of the flight since they were now less than forty-five minutes away from London at the speed they were now traveling at.

**Approximately 2 hours later…**

"London, this Quebec Juliet Zero Two turning on final," Tess heard Clark say into the microphone of the headset that he was wearing. Since she was wearing her own headset she also heard the response that he received.

"Quebec Juliet Zero Two, this is London. We have you have in sight. You are number two to land on runway One-Six. Be advised, there are winds blowing from the northwest at 5 knots"

"Roger, London. Runway One-Six. 5 knot winds from the northwest," Clark replied. "London, Quebec Juliet One Two."

"Go ahead Quebec Juliet One Two."

"How long has your special guest been on the ground," Clark asked being able to see that Linda and Ollie were definitely already on the ground. The X-9 was bathed in the glow of several spotlights and was surrounded by a sizeable mob of people.

"Quebec Juliet One Two, that grand lady has been here nearly an hour and a half, and she shattered every speed record doing it," the excited radioman in the tower said.

Clark and Tess landed and were met by an elated Ollie and Linda. The news was already flashing around the world of what the X-9 had accomplished. Barely a month after the sound barrier had been broken, the X-9 had gone three times faster than that in a sustained flight for more than thirty minutes. While Tess, Ollie and Linda were being bombarded with questions about what this historic flight meant for the future of aviation, Clark was standing off to the side watching.

This had been going on for a few minutes when Tess finally separated herself from the reporters and the others and was starting to make her way towards Clark when he felt something move inside his leather flight jacket. As usual as this occurrence had become for him it still surprised him, but he hadn't startled by Chloe sending him a message this way in sometime. Casually reaching into the interior pocket of his jacket with his right hand, Clark pulled out a neatly folded piece of paper. When he opened it, Clark found what he knew he would find, Chloe's handwriting. Her message was brief and to the point.

'_Me and my folks are still looking into that matter that you asked us to check on. I'll should be there sometime tomorrow to let you know what we have been able to come up with. Alicia and Jimmy already came up with that information you wanted them to find. According to what they found, on September 30, 1811, an American whaler named the __**Roxanne**__ picked up a man near __Stefansson Bay, Antarctica who claimed to be the sole survivor of a Russian vessel called the __**Polar Star**__. This individual was put ashore in Cape Town, South Africa after making inquires of his host if he knew of any ships he might recommend that were headed for Madagascar. The name given by that person to the captain of the __**Roxanne**__ was…'_

As Tess was approaching Clark she saw that he was reading a note of some kind, but her interest in whatever might be in the note definitely went up several notches when she saw his reaction to something that was in the message in his hand. Once she was standing by his side, Clark handed her the piece of paper he had been holding as he stated, "Alicia and Jimmy came through even quicker than I had hoped they would."

Tess quickly read Chloe's message and then looked back at Clark before saying, "At least we got the Ultra-Humanite's real name, and it's a place to start our search for him."

"Yes, we do," Clark acknowledge. "But I don't think you realize just how close to home that search is going to bring us since it seems he likes keep this in the family."

A look of confusion came into Tess' eyes as she tried to figure out what Clark meant by his last statement as she again re-read the name in Chloe's message. The written on the paper in her hand was that of one Pavel Aleksondrovich Turutholinov.

_Author's Note: It has been a year since my last update. I want to thank brizinger1506 and alex1893__for adding this story to their favorites, and I want to express my gratitude to everyone who has taken the time to read this story. In addition to this latest chapter, which I hope you found to be enjoyable, I have also done some minor updating of all the previous chapters and reposted them. Please post a review to let me know what you thought about it. Again, thanks. _


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